The two militiamen rode their motorbikes confidently into the chaos and squalor of the port area, where thousands of refugees are awaiting evacuation from East Timor's devastated capital.
Suddenly, rounding a corner, they ran into a squad of Australian troops who had just driven up from the airport to take control of the harbor yesterday morning.
Landing ships were due to begin unloading the bulk of the force and its equipment late last night.
PHOTO: AP
The militias and their Indonesian army backers have murdered thousands of unarmed East Timorese in the past two weeks and devastated much of the province that voted overwhelmingly to separate from Indonesia in a UN-supervised referendum late last month.
Despite the bravado of militia leaders who claimed their men are ready to fight the peacekeepers, the two gang members -- used to terrorizing unarmed civilians -- looked decidedly uncomfortable when faced with the heavily armed and helmeted Australians.
Offering no resistance, they were quickly disarmed, a rifle being taken from one of the men.
To their obvious relief, the two were then sent packing, last seen speeding away into the devastated streets of downtown Dili.
"Although we are still nervous, we are not as afraid as we were yesterday," said Armando Soares, who observed the incident. "Now the peacekeepers are here."
With his wife and four children, Soares, 37, said he had spent the past two weeks amid the swirling masses of litter, debris and human excrement on the dockside.
"I come from a pro-independence family, but we all had to pretend to favor Indonesia because the militias were killing people who support independence in my neighborhood," he said.
Militiamen used to routinely come into the area to rob people, he said.
One of the soldiers securing the area was Major Chip Henriss-Anderssen.
"It's just a mess," said Henriss-Anderssen, born in Cleveland, Ohio, but serving in the Australian army. "I've been here for only an hour and I've been taken aback by the amount of destruction."
Just hours after news of the arrival of the first planeloads of peacekeepers was broadcast, groups of refugees started trickling back into Dili from the hills surrounding the city where many had sought refuge.
They included a dozen young people, who had walked 10 kilometers to reach the port.
"We were very happy when we heard on the radio this morning that the UN forces have arrived, although East Timor has already been destroyed," said Kiki de Jesus Guterres, 15.
Tales of horror continued to pour out of the city, especially from those terrorized by the murderous Aitarak militia and its other pro-Jakarta allies.
"My husband has run away to the jungle already. Actually, we were forced to live as refugees by the Aitarak militia," said 25-year-old Adelina Gusmao, a staunch pro-independence supporter and mother of two children.
Yet, one thing has calmed her town: the influx of peacekeeping troops that should slow the refugee exodus to neighboring West Timor, where some 200,000 refugees have fled.
"Since they told us the peacekeeping troops were coming, I decided to stay. I don't want to go to West Timor," said Mrs. Gusmao.
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