ABSTRACT
At about 5 p.m. on 30 August 1999, João Lopes was stabbed in the back and killed while loading ballot boxes on to a United Nations vehicle in the village of Atsabe. Mr Lopes was a local staff member of the UN Mission in East Timor (UNAMET), the body that oversaw the referendum in which the population voted overwhelmingly for independence after 24 years of contested Indonesian rule.1 His assailants were local men, sporting red and white bandanas, and armed with swords, home-made guns, and knives. At the time of the attack they were accompanied by armed Indonesian soldiers, including the subdistrict military commander.
