At 2:30pm on 6 September 1999, two days after the results of the independence ballot were announced, thousands of internally displaced persons sheltering at the Ave Maria Catholic church in Suai were attacked by a combined militia-military-police group. Eyewitnesses said the attack was directed by Covalima district head Col Herman Sediono and local military commander Lt Sugito, who both wore combat fatigues and carried M-16 rifles. At least 40 and up to 200 people died in the attack, including three priests who had been negotiating with the military for days. Following this attack several women survivors were reportedly taken to Covalima Kodim Headquarters and sexually assaulted. Lieutenant Sugito later led 31 soldiers and a group of Laksaur militiamen who trucked twenty seven bodies to the village of Alas in Belu, West Timor, where they buried them.