Today's Story Line

It was a year ago this week that marauding militias, trained by the Indonesian Army, escalated a campaign of violence in East Timor. Indonesian generals seemed unable - or unwilling - to control the situation. This week, Indonesian security forces again appeared impotent as the same militia groups fatally attacked at least four aid workers in West Timor . This time, UN forces were closer at hand. New Zealand helicopters evacuated the rest of the UN workers providing assistance to some 100,000 refugees. Does Indonesia have the political and military will to control the militia? Or, will an international force be called in to protect the refugees?

David Clark Scott World editor

REPORTERS ON THE JOB..

*ACCESS (TEMPORARILY) DENIED: There were metal fences set up to keep demonstrators corralled at Dag Hammarskjld Plaza near the United Nations when reporter Kent Davis-Packard arrived. So she simply climbed over and began interviewing the protesters. About an hour later she stepped outside the barricaded area to talk to someone else. When she tried to go back over the fence, she was stopped by a New York City police officer. "I just came from in there," she told him. "I didn't see you," he replied. She showed the cop her Washington, D.C., press credential. New York's finest wasn't impressed. But Kent had a story to get. She walked around to the far side of the barricade, out of his sight, and climbed over.

FOLLOW-UP ON A MONITOR STORY..

*CANADIAN APOLOGIES: Four major Canadian churches apologized Tuesday to natives in Newfoundland and Labrador for suffering endured at the hands of white church officials. As reported on Aug. 31, Canadian natives have filed lawsuits worth billions of dollars against the Anglican, Roman Catholic, United Church of Canada, and Presbyterian churches alleging physical abuse of native children who attended church-run residential schools.

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