The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Andrews, was deep in conversation with Bishop Carlos Belo in the parlour of his home in Dili, East Timor, at 2.50 p.m. on Saturday, when the door opened and the gaunt, grey-bearded man appeared in the entrance. "They are killing my son," he said simply and with great dignity before withdrawing.
There was a shocked silence in the room. "You mean a man is being murdered?" asked Mr Andrews. The bishop replied: "One hour ago he came in and said the militias were attacking his house. What can we do? Their aim is to destroy and kill, and keep us feeling afraid."
The man was Mr Manuel Carrascalao, a leader of the East Timorese independence movement. His house, 500 yards away, was one of the main targets of armed pro-Indonesian militias who took over Dili on Saturday, burning houses and vehicles, smashing up a newspaper office and bringing terror and death to the population.
Mr Andrews came to Dili on Saturday for talks on the future of the former Portuguese colony with Bishop Belo, the Governor, Mr Abilio Soares, and the military commander, Gen Tono Suratman.
The talks took place in a surreal atmosphere in their tranquil seafront residences. But in the tree-lined avenues behind, a rag-tag army had taken over the streets. About 1,000 men brandishing knives and home-made guns had paraded earlier in the centre of town, where they were addressed by Mr Soares and inspected by Mr Eurico Guterres, leader of the Aitarak (Thorn) militia group. They then began driving around town in trucks adorned with red-and-white Indonesian flags, looking for people on a list of pro-independence activists.
Mr Carrascalao was one of them. In recent days 130 terrified villagers had taken refuge in his home as the militias stepped up their campaign of intimidation and murder in the countryside, climaxing in a massacre at Liquica two weeks ago. His 17-year-old son, also called Manuel, tried to stop the militias entering the house. He was stabbed several times and died yesterday. As the police sealed off the street, the militias took over the building. Yesterday no one could account for the 130 people, one of them an 83-year-old nun.
Mr Carrascalao and his brother Mario took refuge in Bishop Belo's house. At Mass yesterday, weeping parishioners lined up to embrace him. Nearby, his daughter wept. I recognised her as the young woman who had appeared on Saturday outside Gen Suratman's bungalow, as Mr Andrews was leaving. She had come to plead for protection.
Mr Carrascalao told me he too had appealed to the military commander for protection but had been refused on the grounds that "it's your problem". By the time darkness fell on Dili, 13 people had been killed, according to the military, and dozens injured. Local activists put the figure much higher. Yesterday the violence continued with more dead and wounded.
In Jakarta yesterday, Mr Andrews telephoned the Indonesian Foreign Minister, Mr Ali Alatas, and told him "in unambiguous terms" what he saw and heard. He told him a senior Indonesian government official should be sent to East Timor, as the situation was out of control.
Today Mr Andrews will meet President B.J. Habibie of Indonesia and has also asked to meet Gen Wiranto, head of the armed forces.