Olympics hold no fears for East Timorese survivors

“They stormed in and shoved guns in our faces and said if we did not get out we would be killed,” the 21 year-old recalled on Monday.

Next door more militia were spraying the house of Pinto’s friend Jaime Lay — a weightlifter — with bullets as Lay’s mother sobbed outside.

Only when the gunmen were distracted by the sound of gunfire elsewhere in the village, could the four flee into the nearby jungle.

Behind them their homes including all their worldly possessions were burnt to the ground.

They spent the following weeks hiding in the jungle, avoiding the militia and their bullets on a daily basis.

“You could see and hear gun shots — pop, pop, pop — fromvery early in the morning until long after the sun went down," said Lay, also aged 21.

“They just killed so many people for no reason.”

It was not until the first UN troops arrived in Dili last September that the four, along with hundreds of other East Timorese, emerged from the jungle.

Now three boxers, three marathon runners, two weightlifters and a taekwondo fighter are training at the Northern Territory Institute of Sport in Darwin, North Australia, aiming to represent their new nation in Sydney.

Each of the nine hopefuls has their own story to tell.

“I was hiding in some bushes in the jungle. I saw some of my friends killed,” said taekwondo fighter Uthoc Flaminggo.

Another boxer Rogerio Soares said he was targeted because the gunmen knew he could fight.

“The militia came looking for us boxers. They were on a mission to kill us,” he said.

For others the painful memories are still too much too bear.

"I can’t speak about what happened. It is too hard,” said marathon runner Calisto da Costa.

But the athletes are relishing the opportunity of living and training in relative opulence under the International Olympic Committee’s Solidarity Scholarship.

“The facilities in Australia are wonderful,” said Victor Ramos, a boxer who sports a four-centimetre bullet wound on his left abdomen.

“In East Timor now there is nothing. No equipment to train with because the militia burned it all.”

Only four of the East Timorese will be able to fulfil their dream of competing in Sydney. The lucky few, who will be selected later this month, will have the honour of representing the 2000 Games’ youngest nation.