At the beginning of September 2000, the world was startled by the Atambua incident, where three foreign UNHCR staff from Croatia, Puerto Rico and Ethiopia were slaughtered. This incident started when an ex-commander of the East Timorese pro-integration militia, Olivio Mendosa Moruk, was found horrifically murdered.

The Atambua incident has really caught the Indonesian government by surprise, just like a slap on the face of President Abdurrahman