Word: militia
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...bone. His stomach was slashed open. Blood covered his frame. "Where do you put a tourniquet on someone who has been sliced all over?" asked Sexton, a U.N. observer evacuated last week from East Timor. She took him to the Motael clinic in Dili, but he soon died. The militia later came back and burned the clinic to the ground...
...this like Kosovo? they asked in call-in shows and letters to Congress. The White House responded to the growing public anger with strong condemnations of its own. By Friday, President Bill Clinton was saying, "It is now clear that the Indonesian military is aiding and abetting the militia," and called for "an international force to make possible the restoration of security." But presidential advisers made it clear that realpolitik ruled: the U.S. had no plans to fight its way uninvited into a territory that supplies little more than a specialty coffee bean to Starbucks. "Because we bombed Kosovo doesn...
Hints of the fury that struck East Timor had been apparent since January. When Habibie unexpectedly offered locals a referendum on independence, militia groups who wanted continued ties with Jakarta began to organize and acquire guns. Even before the vote, independence campaigners were intimidated and dozens killed. Although the militias were clearly supported by elements of the Indonesian armed forces, the international community in May agreed to entrust security during the referendum period to Indonesia. It was a fatal misjudgment, as the bloodbath showed. Why the killing? There were all kinds of theories. Perhaps the military, angered at having...
...announcement that nearly 80% of the electorate had voted for independence, Dili and other towns echoed with gunfire as militiamen took over the streets, unchecked by the military. Civilians began pouring into churches, convents and U.N. compounds seeking safety (see accompanying story). "If there is a devil, these militia guys work for him," said a photographer evacuated from Dili after the referendum...
...there was any light to be found in East Timor last week, it was in the U.N. compound in Dili, where a small group of aid workers, journalists and refugees kept up a heroic mission. Though Annan had ordered the compound shut on Wednesday, after militia groups attacked a U.N. food convoy, his local representatives revolted: fearing the 1,500 refugees in the compound would be massacred once the foreigners left, the staff members circulated petitions and announced they would stay. After a few hours of frantic negotiating, the U.N. left behind a skeleton staff of 84 people, who endured...