THE SURVIVORS: "Just Like the Indonesians"

Former soldier Carlisto "Lito" Afonza thought he was safe as he and his wife huddled in the rocky hills above Dili's outer western suburbs. Cradling their 18-month-old son, they listened anxiously to the almost continuous thunder of gunshots and exploding grenades that echoed around the ridges on April 29. "I had to go up onto the ridge because I was worried the grenades might land on my house," Afonza says.

For more than an hour he waited. Then a soldier emerged on the ridgeline. "He didn't say anything—he just shot a grenade at us," Afonza says. It...