Quotes of the Day

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 whistled over the family's heads and dropped over the ridge. "I picked up my son and ran. Then I felt something like a stinging slap on my neck and I fell over and looked down. There was blood on my son. I thought, He's been shot, and I ran."

Afonza and his wife and child managed to escape to the hill. Last week he was still in hiding, but receiving treatment for the wounds on his back and neck. Goat breeder Lemos Pires says he'd been watching his flock when he heard shooting. "I saw Lito running," he says. "There is shooting, and then Lito fell over." Pires says he confronted the soldiers. "I said to them, You are worse than the Indonesians.'

"They said, 'O.K., you are from the west. We want to kill you.' "

• Rory Callinan
• Former soldier Carlisto "Lito" Afonza thought he was safe as he and his wife huddled in the rocky hills ...