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Militia gang kills U.N. peacekeeper in East Timor |
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August 12, 2000
DILI (AP) - A Nepalese U.N. peacekeeper died late Thursday from a gunshot wound inflicted by a suspected anti-independence militia group in East Timor, a U.N. spokesman said. Three other Nepalese peacekeepers and a civilian were injured. Pvt. Devi Ram Jaishi, 25, was the second U.N. peacekeeper to die in fighting in East Timor, following the death of a New Zealand soldier who was shot in the head July 24 during a clash with militia who oppose East Timor's independence from Indonesia. He is survived by his wife. He was pronounced dead on arrival at the military hospital in Dili late Thursday, said the spokesman for the peacekeepers in Dili, Norwegian Col. Brynjar Nymo. Jaishi died from wounds to the chest. A second Nepalese soldier was in the military hospital in the capital in a serious condition. The Nepalese peacekeepers were patrolling an area 30 kilometers (19 miles) from the border of West Timor, which is still part of Indonesia, when they were fired on by the suspected militia group they had been tracking. "We don't have confirmation whether they were ambushed by the militia gang or if an exchange of fire took place," said Nymo. Two of the blue beret soldiers and an unknown civilian were treated on the spot and at a hospital in the southern town of Suai. Nymo confirmed the injured civilian was not a militia member, but an innocent bystander. The two seriously injured peacekeepers were flown to Dili for urgent medical treatment and one later died in the capital, U.N. spokesman Farhan Haq said at U.N. headquarters in New York. The United Nations moved into East Timor to administer its transition to independence after Indonesian military-backed militias went on a rampage of killing and destruction 11 months ago to oppose a vote by East Timorese for independence from Indonesia. The territory was invaded by Indonesia 25 years ago as colonial power Portugal retreated.
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