A humanitarian disaster with thousands of people displaced, no access to food or medical supplies, disease, murder, rape and torture is the description not this time of former Yugoslavia but of the tragedy in East Timor.
This was the story told by two people, Ms Patricia Kelly, a member of the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission, and Mr Karl Hayden, of the East Timor Ireland Solidarity Campaign, on their return from Dili yesterday.
They said that UN officials, now in the East Timor capital to oversee the referendum in August, were unarmed and had a limited mandate.
Ms Kelly said that a humanitarian disaster was taking place outside Dili. The number of refugees displaced by the militia ranged from 18,000 to 52,000. They were put into displacement camps, called re-education camps. She said the militia was backed by the Indonesian military.
"Women are the targets for the militia. They are raped in front of their families, kept in military posts as sex slaves. They bear the brunt of the human rights abuses and I was shocked and horrified by the testimonies we heard."
The young men fled to the jungle as they were forced to join the militia. They were brought to outlying villages and forced to kill. If they did not they were tortured and then killed.
Mr Hayden said: "The militia barely try to cover up. They are killing so many, there is no time to bury the bodies."
The militia was preventing humanitarian and medical aid reaching the people.
Ms Kelly and Mr Hayden called for the Government and the international community to put pressure on Jakarta.
"The situation is very, very grave and there is an obligation on the international community to act," Ms Kelly said.