Payback Time

Twenty-year-old Rosina Olaloco was killed when grenades exploded at the Maubusa market in East Timor, a stone's throw from Indonesian West Timor. At this cross-border bazaar, children wheel through the bustle like sparrows as veterans of the pro-Indonesian militia that razed the country two years ago mingle with farmers, stallholders and smugglers. Rosina was not the only victim of the May 29 attack; in their rage over a gambling debt, former members of the Dangi Dadaras Merah Putih militia killed four other people and wounded more than 40.

Despite the presence of United Nations peacekeepers in East Timor,...