Wings of a Bird

Bush has chance to hold terrorists accountable - by Amy Goodman, P-I guest columnist
... At the cemetery, we saw hundreds of Indonesian troops coming up the road, 12 to 15 abreast. The Indonesian military had committed many massacres in the past, but never in front of Western journalists. We walked to the front of the crowd, hoping that our presence could stop the attack. Children whispered behind us. I put on my headphones, took out my tape recorder and held up my microphone like a flag. We wanted to alert the troops that this time they were being watched by the world.
The Timorese couldn't escape. They were trapped by the cemetery walls that lined both sides of the road. Without any warning, provocation or hesitation, the soldiers swept past us and opened fire.
People were ripped apart. The troops just kept shooting, killing anyone still standing. A group of soldiers surrounded me. They started to shake my microphone in my face. Then they slammed me to the ground with their rifle butts and kicked me with their boots. I gasped for breath. Allan threw himself on top of me to protect me from further injury.
The soldiers wielded their M-16s like baseball bats, slamming them against his head until they fractured his skull. He lay in the road in spasm, covered in blood, unable to move. Suddenly, about a dozen soldiers lined up like a firing squad. They put the guns to our heads and screamed, "Politik! Politik!" They were accusing us of being involved in politics, a crime clearly punishable by death. They demanded, "Australia? Australia?" The Indonesians executed six Australian journalists during the 1975 invasion. ....