Sander Thoenes (November 7, 1968 – September 21, 1999) was a Dutch journalist who was killed, near Dili in East Timor, by soldiers of the Indonesian army. He was shot when their paths crossed on a road as the Indonesians withdrew from the territory. Early life Thoenes was born in Enschede, the Netherlands, the youngest of three brothers. He was educated at Gymnasium St. Jacobus college in Enschede (1981-1987) and studied English literature and modern Russian history at Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts, USA (1987-1992). During his time at Hampshire college Thoenes learned to speak and write Russian fluently. Career After studying for his journalism career at the Centre for Investigative Reporting in San Francisco he moved to Moscow in August, 1992. Here Thoenes worked for the English language paper Moscow Times. He went on to write for the Dutch weekly Vrij Nederland and served as correspondent for U.S. News & World Report, where he reported from Chechnya in 1995. In 1996 he relocated to Almaty, Kazakhstan and covered Central Asia, including Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Afghanistan for the Financial Times. In September, 1997 he moved to Jakarta, Indonesia, still working as a correspondent for the Financial Times. There he reported the Asian Financial Crisis and the fall of President Suharto. Death On September 21, 1999, Thoenes was killed by soldiers from a company of the Indonesian Army's Battalion 745 as the unit withdrew from the territory, carrying out a deliberate, government-directed, scorched-earth policy as it went. These murders were just one in a string of similar incidents that marked the passage of the unit westward along the coast-road toward the Indonesian border. Thoenes was riding pillion on a local motorcycle taxi in the neighborhood of Becora, just east of Dili, when he encountered the column of motor-cyclists and heavy lorries as it approached Dili from the opposite direction. Australian-led UN peace-keepers discovered Thoenes’ body with gunshot-wounds in the back-yard of a house on a side-road. It was concluded Thoenes had been moved off the road to delay his being found and that he had also been shot at close range, with deliberation. Florindo Araujo, Thoenes' motorcycle taxi driver, told reporters that he was stopped by at least six men wearing gray Indonesian police uniforms at a roadblock while en route to Becora. Araujo and Thoenes sought to flee. Araujo managed to reach cover in the bush nearby and hide. He