choppers ...

music and chopper fx ...

troops arriving ...

patrolling ...

Tim VO#1 46.28

It's just after dawn and Interfet is launching it's mission to secure Suai.  Australian blackhawks fly across East Timor to the Territory's south western edge with the first of 150 New Zealand troops.

(pause for upsot/music)

MAP

EAST TIMOR/SUAI

Australian troops will follow in a campaign to end 5 weeks of terror in East Timor's last militia stronghold.

Major General John Howard

Victor Company, New Zealand

Grab Major General John Howard

"Security is a problem, a threat in this area at the moment. It's a little bit more unknown. We're pushing into an area that is closer to the border as we've said and we're concerned for the security of everybody who's here and that's something that will be clearly focussed in all of out operations about our operation"

Troops meeting the locals ..

A local group speaking with them ...

Tim VO#2 46.53

The first large foreign contingent to reach Suai seems more intimidated by the few locals who dared to come home than the locals are of this new army in town.

(break for pause/upsot)

Typical of the East Timorese this group is happy the UN sanctioned forces made it at all.

(break for pause/upsot)

Not even a hint of anger that the world left them at the beginning of last month to the mercy of a spiteful, brutal and unusually destructive military operation.

Alarico Monis

Suai Resident

Grab (dialect) Alarico Monis

 "We are very happy, we are happy to be alive"

Scenics up in mountain of road running through mountain ... trucks through frame ...

Interior driving shots ...

Destroyed villages along the way ...

Tim VO#3 47.32

It's the last major East Timor road yet to be abandoned by the armed gangs. For this trip south from Dili through the mountainous centre I joined Australian aid workers and a doctor too impatient to wait for an all clear from the multi-national forces.

Along the way village after village utterly destroyed.

Brief pause for McNaughton and villagers upsot

Pics of McNaughtan in small village badly damaged ... or cutaways

Tim VO#4 47.52

An activist for East Timorese self determination Andrew McNaughton has no doubt who shoulders the blame for the destruction here.

Andrew McNaughtan

Timor Aid

Then McNaughton grab

"That coordination can't have come from anywhere but an army, from the Indonesian army. And it can't have occurred without being endorsed and sanctioned from the top level of the Indonesian armed forces. This cannot  be a lower level operation."

RETURN TO TIM'S AUGUST STORY

PICS ...

UPSOT SEQUENCE FROM TIM'S AUGUST STORY ...

Refos in churchyards ...

do we need a time super ...

Foreign Correspondent

August 24, 1999

Tim VO#5 48.15

When Foreign Correspondent last visited Suai just before August ‘s overwhelming vote for independence 1800 refugees had fled to the church seeking protection from the militia's campaign of terror.

Voxpop no super available ...

Grab ex old story probably in dialect

"We come to stay in this church because the evil men of the militias ran after us, want to kill us and hit us, arrest us. That's why we're scared to stay in our houses, to live with our families"

Militia ex August story ...

Tim VO#6 48.29

The leader of  East Timor's militia's told us there would be violence after the vote.

Joao Tavares

Militia Commander

Grab ex old story ...militia leader

"Yes I think it will happen. It will happen because the Timorese never accept losing"

Pro independence rally from August story ...

Tim VO#7 48.36

And in the midst of a defiant pro independence rally in a militia heartland an independence leader said the local militia had already told him the refugees were going to die.

Antonio Cardosa

Independence leader, Suai

Grab ex old story ... independence guy

"You will see on the first and second of September. It means they will attack for the people, especially the refugees that are right now living in the residence of the Suai church"

More pro independence rally ...

mix though to new stuff wasteland around church, destruction ...

Tim VO#8 48.50

The yard where they cheered and yelled that day ...

(pause for cheering ...

... is now in a wasteland. Of all the accounts to emerge in recent weeks of brutality in east Timor the most chilling has come from here.

(break for breath/upsot)

Reports that 100 that we'd met in the churchyard in August had been slaughtered. In Suai some believe the toll was even higher.

Alarico Monis

Suai Resident

Grab Alarico Monis

"We can't count them. There were a lot of people - women and men and students, because there was a boarding house there. Maybe about 400"

49.16

but there's a replace version at end of tape ...

Jose wandering around churchyard ...

Tim VO#9

As we went back to Suai's church and half built cathedral, so to did a witness to the events of early September. Jose Manual Da Silva was one refugee among hundreds watching as militiamen pointed a gun at the respected local priest Father Hilario.

Jose Manual Da Silva

Witness, Suai massacre

Grab Jose ... 5 secs in ...

"He said ‘don't cry it's our time to die we can only pray'"

Shot of fathers glasses lying in the ashes ...

Jose out the back of the church where he saw the bodies ...

Tim VO#10 49.34

Still at the place where he fell, what appeared to be Father Hilario's glasses. Jose ran out the back of the church. He says he saw between 30 and 40 bodies, before he hid to escape death himself.

Jose pointing to drum ...

Grab Jose showing how he hid ...

"I was hiding in that drum."

People climbing stairs in the half built cathedral ... to find to blood and

Tim VO#11 49.51

On the other side of the compound, around the imposing half built cathedral, there are signs of killing Jose didn't see.

Dr John Cooper

Australian physisican

Grab Dr John Cooper

"There's blood everywhere, there's blood on the walls there's blood on bamboo scaffolding..."

Blood on steps and blood all around

or Cooper showing bullet ...

Tim VO#12 50.00

In many cases here, it appears the killers didn't bother with bullets.

Poss pics over Cooper as thought track

Grab Doc ..

"Bullets weren't used to shoot people because they were probably expensive. So they've just literally herded these people up three flights of stairs until there was no further to go and they've either thrown them over or the people have chosen to jump over, which is about a fifty feet fall to their death"

Churchyard stuff, destruction or maybe more pics of blood stuff in old cathedral

or bullet sequence with doc here ...

Tim VO#13 50.07

So who were the Black September killers in Suai? Jose saw the militia that day but he has no doubt who was giving the orders - the local Indonesian military commander.

Jose Manual Da Silva

Witness, Suai massacre

Grab Jose ... 5 secs in ...

"I know him because I heard his voice everyday, screaming."

Then butt with

Alarico Monis

Suai Resident

Grab Alarico Monis...

"The Indonesian military threatened us to choose autonomy. If we didn't they would kill all of us, if we chose independence."

Ainaro pics ( ‘round where there's spilling broken water main)

Nelson walking down road ...

TIM VO#14 50.30

It's a claim made right across East Timor - that Indonesia's military is the real villain.

(pause for upsot)

On the road to Suai the town of Inaro like almost every other centre has been destroyed.

(maybe pause again)

Nelson Valente Pires was a senior member of the local Mahidi militia.

He says he only joined to protect his family and village.

Nelson Valente Pires

Former Mahidi militia officer

Grab Nelson (apparently 24 secs)

"First when they burnt the houses on the fourth of September they were burnt by the militias, but the Indonesian military was standing behind them. If the militia didn't burn the houses, the Indonesian military would burn them.

Nelson walking through a burnt out building ... building destruction ...

Trek going into the bush ... little village

Tim VO#15  50.55

The militia destroyed Nelson's home - he lived perhaps only because he fled.

(pause for upsot)

Others tried to run but were shot. This trek into the bush an hour north-east of Suai, to evacuate a man gunned down three weeks ago.

Upsot of Doc examining patient ex grab list " So he's got a bullet penetration wound three weeks old going straight through his upper arm, through his humerus and it's shattered that. So that'll need surgery and might need amputation. Now his leg ... poor man ..."

Then though to Cooper IV grab

maybe though track first bit

Dr John Cooper

Australian physician

"We've seen chronically malnourished people, with four weeks post the militia uprising, or the militia killings, and terrified people. Most of their injuries at the moment seem to psychological but. We know that there are a number of deaths and a number of bullet penetration injuries, but their overall health at the moment is probably better than we dared hope for ..."

Flute kid and streetscenes

Doctors attending to injured people

in a room

Tim VO#17 51.28

As tens of thousands begin the trek back from hiding in the bush to their destroyed villages, word is emerging of many others who waited weeks with serious injuries.

(pause for upsot)

On the Suai road in the village of Ainaro doctors treat six shot more than two weeks ago. They lived because a young East Timorese doctor raided the medicine cupboard before he fled.

Then John Cooper on phone upsot "Listen to me, can the helicopter come to Casa?"

More injuries being treated ...

Tim VO#18  51.53

In this part of East Timor even those who escaped the bullets and machetes are in danger.

Dr John Cooper

Australian physician

Grab Dr John Cooper

"But it's these remote people who've been in the hills for longer, who've been further away from health care and further away from food supplies for much longer. So we've got to get in right now"

Maybe Blackhawks down at beach

and troops securing the beach for a vessel to land ...

then to kid in doorway ... smiling

Tim VO#19 52.00

It's why some aid workers wouldn't wait for the military. Now the helicopters and armored vehicles are in Suai. Too late to save most of the buildings and many of the people though in East Timor they're thankful anyway.

There's reason to believe now the terror of Black September is finally over.