The carnage which followed the August 30, 1999, East Timorese independence referendum took so many lives that, at times, the tragedy appears too great to comprehend. Still, snapshots of the gruesome bloodletting reflect frictions that existed long before the ballots were cast. One of the victims whose passing is still widely remembered is Father Karl Albrecht (c. 1929–1999). Romo Karim Arbie, as he was locally known in Indonesia, was a German-born Indonesian-nationalised Jesuit who was behind the complex logistics required to transport medicines and victuals from Atambua to Dili and the dispatch of refugees in the reverse direction. This umbilical cord between Indonesia and Timor-Leste would be severed following Father Albrecht's fatal shooting on the night of September 11, 1999, by unknown assailants.

The fact that Father Albrecht was on the hit list appears to have come as a surprise to him despite the carnage which engulfed the territory after the announcement of the referendum result on September 4, 1999. As the director of the Timorese branch of the Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) and an Indonesian citizen, he had long enjoyed a form of diplomatic immunity. This allowed him to operate as the dean of the University of Timor and maintain Jesuit hospitals and related education, cooperation and healthcare projects across the territory. The latter had been hanging on a thin thread throughout the Indonesian occupation of this long-neglected former Portuguese colony. But this thread also relied on the voluntary services of a brave few. Among these, the Indonesian Jesuits were key.