The violence that has racked East Timor's countryside for months came to Dili yesterday in the shape of lorry-loads of what could only loosely be called campaigners. Five people were shot dead, one by a policeman, execution style, in front of my colleague, Tjitske Lingsma.
It was the penultimate day of campaigning for Monday's "Popular Consultation", which could lead to independence from Indonesia after 24 years of military rule. A militia member stared at Ms Lingsma and clenched the pin of a hand-grenade in his teeth, threatening to pull it out. For the offence of being a foreign journalist she got a kick in the ribs.
Police arrived and provided an escort for her and several other colleagues, including cameramen, who had been trapped behind a wall during a running battle between independence supporters with knives, sickles and even bows and arrows and pro-autonomy militia members with home-made guns and automatic weapons.
One policeman shot a fleeing pro-independence youngster in the head - perhaps because his comrades had earlier taunted the heavily armed riot squad.
The Minister for Foreign Affairs and EU Special Envoy to East Timor, Mr Andrews, is in Jakarta with an EU delegation preparing for a visit to Timor today.
Yesterday's violence broke out suddenly on the fringes of a pro-Indonesian rally of about 10,000 youngsters. The incident started at a bridge across a dry river where local residents and independence supporters banged stones on metal railings as a warning the militias were coming on motorbikes to attack. The militias arrived and as the residents threw stones, they were answered with gunfire. A running battle ensued for 45 minutes. Later we heard shooting in several other parts of the city.
A taxi and three houses were burned. A wounded man was brought into the compound of UNAMET, which is managing Monday's ballot, and died there. There had also been shooting into a house near UNAMET headquarters. Pro-autonomy Aitarak youths used home-made pistols, but later switched to automatic weapons possibly supplied by the Indonesian military..
Earlier in the day, East Timor's recently appointed military commander, Col Noer Muis, was reported as saying the army had two strategic scenarios to cope with the possibility of a bloodbath after the vote.
"The post-ballot period will be a very critical stage, since neither of the two conflicting factions seem able to accept the possibility of defeat. And this has been reflected by the numerous clashes among their supporters during the campaigning."
The colonel seems to forget that the current pattern of violence, of which yesterday's killings were a perfect example, is one of violence initiated by one side only.