TV 3 6pm Bulletin

TIMOR: The city has been devastated with hardly a building left unscathed as TV 3 pictures showed. The streets are deserted apart from occasional late looters and thousands of East Timorese have been rounded up by military and militia and taken away.

CLINTON: US President Bill Clinton has said Indonesia must invite a peacekeeping force into the area if it cannot control the province. Clinton arrives in Auckland around 9am tomorrow and he said he expects Timor to be an important part of the talks here.

SHIPLEY: Prime Minister Jenny Shipley agrees with Clinton that the talks will be important but said they will stay on the margins of APEC.

MILITARY TIES: Both New Zealand and the US have cut military ties with Indonesia and Don McKinnon has told Indonesia that troops are ready to leave immediately if they are invited in. They have not been yet.

IMF: The International Monetary Fund is reconsidering its mammoth loans to Indonesia as the crisis deepens. New Zealand is also talking about sanctions but stressed they would not support sanctions that impact on ordinary people.

HORTA: Timorese Independence leader Jose Ramos Horta has met with Jenny Shipley in Auckland today. He said the meeting was positive but warned the UN nations that if nothing was done they would all be responsible for genocide.

EVACUATION: UN staff were airlifted out of Dili to Darwin today. Five Kiwis remain in the UN compound but three are coming home tonight. Protests at Australian airports over customers using the Indonesian airline Garuda caused delays today.

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