Draft:Atambua UNHCR office attack
 | Draft article not currently submitted for review.
This is a draft Articles for creation (AfC) submission. It is not currently pending review. While there are no deadlines, abandoned drafts may be deleted after six months. To edit the draft click on the "Edit" tab at the top of the window. To be accepted, a draft should:
It is strongly discouraged to write about yourself, your business or employer. If you do so, you must declare it. Where to get help
How to improve a draft
You can also browse Wikipedia:Featured articles and Wikipedia:Good articles to find examples of Wikipedia's best writing on topics similar to your proposed article. Improving your odds of a speedy review To improve your odds of a faster review, tag your draft with relevant WikiProject tags using the button below. This will let reviewers know a new draft has been submitted in their area of interest. For instance, if you wrote about a female astronomer, you would want to add the Biography, Astronomy, and Women scientists tags. Editor resources
Last edited by Glugster (talk | contribs) 15 days ago. (Update) |
| Atambua UNHCR office attack | |
|---|---|
| Location | Atambua, East Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia |
| Date | 6 September 2000 |
| Target | UNHCR employees |
| Deaths | 3 |
| Injured | Several refugees, and 1 UNHCR staffer |
| Perpetrators | Pro-Indonesia militias |
| Motive | Anger after the murder of Olivio Mendonça Moruk |
The Atambua UNHCR office attack or the Atambua killings was an attack on 6 September 2000 during a riot, by mob of angered residents led by pro-Indonesia militants who attacked a United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees office in Atambua, Indonesia, the attack left at least left three UNHCR employees dead.
Victims
[edit]Samson Aregahegn was born on 8 July 1956 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.[1] He joined the UNHCR in 1990. He first served in his home country of Ethiopia assisting refugees in the town of Aware and in 1997 he was moved to the city of Jijiga. In January 2000 he was moved to West Timor to assist in the East Timorese crisis, his wife Genet also came with him. His colleagues called him Bapak Samson.[2][3]
Carlos Luis Caceres Collazo was born on 9 January 1967 in San Juan, Puerto Rico. He studied law at the Cornell Law School in New York, and he would graduate in 1991. After law school he became a lawyer. In 1997 he joined the UNHCR. In 1999 he was flown to Moscow and would serve in the Second Chechen War. In March 2000 he was moved to West Timor.[2][3]
Pero Simundza was born on 18 March 1971 in Zadar, Croatia (then SR Croatia of SFR Yugoslavia).[4][5] He joined the UNHCR in 1997, he first served in Metković, Croatia in the aftermath of Croatian War of Independence, he would later serve in Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina (then the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina) in the aftermath of the Bosnian War. In March 2000 he was moved to West Timor.[2][3]
Attack
[edit]On 5 September 2000, Olivio Mendonça Moruk or also known as Olivio Mendoza Moruk (37) who was a commader of the Laksaur militia was attacked by local men seeking revenge for the beating and abduction of Aloysius Bere earlier that day at the Weoe market, Moruk and six of his men were responsible for the attack. Bere’s brother Stefanus Fahik found out about the incident from a friend of his Thomas Nahak. Fahik gathered a few of his friends Yusuf Tualaka, Wilbrodus Kehi, Oktovianus Bere, Yulianus Bere, Thomas Nahak, Josep Bere and Jonisius Neto. The group who were armed with machetes located Moruk’s house in Umalorotos. When they didn’t find Aloysius they attacked Moruk, in response Moruk pulled out a pistol and shot Neto in the chest. Which angered the rest of the group. Fahik was able to grab Moruk’s pistol, and he then stabbed Moruk in the head. After which they would hack Moruk to death. The group then decapitated Moruk’s corpse, removed his heart and castrated him.[2] Neto who was shot in the attack on Moruk was carried away but would succumb to his wounds, having been most likely been shot in one of the lungs.[6]
During Olivio Mendonça Moruk’s funeral on 6 September which would’ve also been his 38th birthday. Around 20 trucks full of pro-Indonesian militiamen, most likely Laksaur militiamen, pulled up in front of the UNHCR office in Atambua. The militants were backed up by a mob of around 5,000 people who had around 30 cars and 50 motorcycles. The mob were armed with homemade rifles, machetes, axes and rocks. The mob set fire to one of the vehicles outside of the office, before attacking the office itself. They found three international UNHCR employees identified as 33-year-old Puerto Rican protection officer Carlos Caceres Collazo, 29-year-old Croatian telecommunications operator Pero Simundza and 44-year-old Ethiopian supply officer Samson Aregahegn. The mob dragged them out of the office, they hacked Caceres Collazo and Simundza to death, the mob then beat and stoned Aregahegn to death, the mob then set the office and the three men’s bodies on fire.[7] Many others including refugees and other workers were also attacked, a Brazilian woman who was a UNHCR staffer was seriously injured by a militant wielding an axe.[8][9][10][11]
Several other buildings were also attacked including the International Office for Migration which was burned down, and the office of the International Committee of the Red Cross which was looted.[11]
Aftermath
[edit]Around 54 to 55 refugees were evacuated to the town of Balibo shortly after the attack.[12][13]
44 UNHCR employees were evacuated to Dili.[10]
Trial
[edit]In January 2001 six men were charges with the killing of the three employees. In the first hearing Xisto Pereira (26), Serafin Ximenes (26) and Joao Martins (27) were charged with the violence that led to the deaths of the three men, they were proposed to get a 12 year sentence. In the second hearing a local entrepreneur Julius Naisama (35) and two farmers Jose Fransisco (35) and Joao Alves da Cruz (26) were charged with manslaughter, a charge that carries a 15 year sentence.[14]
References
[edit]- ^ "Ethiopia: Slain Relief Worker To Be Buried At Home". allAfrica.com. 2000-09-09. Retrieved 2025-08-19.
- ^ a b c d "United Nations NEWSLETTERS". www.untuk.org. Retrieved 2025-08-18.
- ^ a b c "Timor murders: UNHCR staff still in shock". UNHCR US. 2000-09-08. Retrieved 2025-08-19.
- ^ "IN MEMORIAM - Pero Simundza 9A4SP (1971 - 2000)". www.qsl.net. Retrieved 2025-08-19.
- ^ "11 November 2000 QST | PDF | High Frequency | Amateur Radio". Scribd. Retrieved 2025-08-18.
- ^ ""Trial of Laksaur commander's murder case underway"". etan.org. February 2001. Retrieved 2025-08-19.
- ^ "Hatred of 'white men' led to UN slaughter". etan.org. Retrieved 2025-08-19.
- ^ Aglionby, John (2000-09-07). "UN refugee staff killed in west Timor". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2025-08-19.
- ^ "Mob kills three U.N. workers in W. Timor". Tampa Bay Times. Retrieved 2025-08-19.
- ^ a b "U.N. Workers Killed in Timor; Reverberations Felt at Summit (Published 2000)". 2000-09-06. Retrieved 2025-08-19.
- ^ a b "West Timor Alert 07 Sep 2000 - Indonesia | ReliefWeb". reliefweb.int. 2000-09-07. Retrieved 2025-08-19.
- ^ Aglionby, John (2000-09-07). "UN refugee staff killed in west Timor". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2025-08-19.
- ^ Wagstaff, Jeremy; Madani, Puspa (2000-09-08). "Foreign Aid Workers in West Timor Are Evacuated After U.N. Killings". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved 2025-08-19.
- ^ "Six accused of killing UN workers want trial in West Timor". etan.org. January 2001. Retrieved 2025-08-19.