Dozens of men, women and children were massacred in East Timor yesterday as pro-Jakarta militias, unhindered by the Indonesian army and police, went on a killing spree in reaction to the overwhelming support for independence expressed in last week's UN-organised referendum and announced on Saturday.
The militiamen killed at least 145 people, unconfirmed reports said. Portugal's representative in Jakarta said last night that more than 100 people may have been killed and dozens more wounded in East Timor in the past 24 hours by pro-Indonesia gangs.
The UN Security Council met last night to consider sending a mission to Jakarta to get Indonesia to halt the violence.
A draft statement by the president of the Council "condemned in strongest terms the intensifying violence in East Timor" and "underlined the responsibility of the government of Indonesia to guarantee peace and security" there.
The draft said the Council was "planning the dispatch of a Security Council mission to discuss with the government of Indonesia concrete steps to allow the peaceful implementation of the ballot result."
The Timorese Nobel Peace Prize winner, Mr Jose Ramos Horta, warned that a humanitarian disaster was unfolding. With the situation worsening by the hour, the possibility was growing last night that the UN Mission in East Timor (UNAMET) might have to withdraw.
Mr Ramos-Horta called for the dispatch of an independent, neutral armed force to protect the people of the violence-torn territory.
Australian naval vessels and two US warships have been standing by at the Australian port of Darwin to carry out an emergency evacuation of foreign personnel, including 700 remaining UN personnel.
Australia is to launch an evacuation today of non-essential UN staff and Australians from East Timor, saying Indonesia has allowed violence to escalate in the territory following the vote for independence.
"There is no doubt in the world Indonesia is not fulfilling its obligations to maintain law and order (in East Timor)," said the Australian Prime Minister, Mr John Howard.
Australia is also preparing to head an emergency force to Dili and is negotiating at the UN in New York for US participation but Mr Howard, said it would not go in without Indonesian approval.
For a second day the UNAMET compound in the capital Dili was besieged by gunfire directed against independence sympathisers and refugees in an adjacent centre. The last foreign television crews were evacuated by air from the former Portuguese colony yesterday and most of the few remaining foreign nationals gathered last night at UNAMET or at the Australian consulate near the airport for safety.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said yesterday that 25,000 civilians in East Timor had fled their homes and taken shelter in churches and missions. Up to 2,000 terrified people had crowded into the Red Cross compound situated between the Turismo Hotel and Bishop Carlos Belo's residence, where thousands more were huddled last night seeking shelter.
Last night there was a report that the bishop's house had been attacked and that the Catholic diocese office was torched.
Thousands of East Timorese have taken to the hills and there are fears that they will become victim there to marauding gunmen and hunger.
A team of Indonesian ministers arrived in Dili for crisis talks yesterday but were unable to leave the airport. They included the Defence Minister, Gen Wiranto and the Foreign Minister, Mr Ali Alatas, who told the three electoral commissioners, including Mr Pat Bradley from Northern Ireland, that militias blamed the violence on complaints about the UNAMET's conduct of the poll.