Short Biography Sander Thoenes

Note: this is intended to serve as practical information for reference purposes only.

Born 7 november 1968 in Enschede, the Netherlands, youngest of three brothers.

1975-1981 Primary School in Enschede

1981-1987 Secondary Education

Gymnasium St. Jacobuscollege in Enschede (editor of school paper "'t Komkommertje"). Graduated in 1987. Thanks to excellent grades, he was allowed to apply for a scholarship in the USA.

1987- 1992 Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts, USA, on a scholarship. Studies: Liberal Arts.
After one year he was granted a second scholarship for another 3 years, and he decided to stay. He studied English literature and modern Russian history . He learned to speak, read and write Russian fluently. Sander spent one semester as a trainee at the Centre for Investigative Reporting in San Francisco, in the spring of 1990 and another one in Moscow in the autumn of 1991 as a trainee for US News and World Report. He graduated in 1992. His Division III Thesis: "Between Glasnost and a Free Press, Soviet Journalism in the Gorbachev years", printed in 1992.

Sander was also awarded the prestigious John D. and Catherine T. McArthur ("genius") award during this time, which was used to fund his Russian studies and some of his early career as a writer for Center for Investigative reporting and elsewhere.

1992-1995 Moscow, CIS

August 1992 (after graduation) he went to live in Moscow to work for the Moscow Times , a pioneer English language newspaper. In Moscow, he walked into the "Battle of the White House" on which he reported in the Dutch weekly Vrij Nederland. Covered the process of change and chaos in the ex-USSR. The first time he went to Indonesia was during a holidays from Moscow in 1994 with his girlfriend Angela. Reported from Chechenya in 1995.

Also, he worked as a correspondent for U.S. News and World Report in 1995

Sander at the phone in Moscow

1996 Almaty, Kazachstan
At the end of 1995 he went to Kazakhstan and stayed a year as a correspondent of the Financial Times. He covered the Central Asian region, reporting from Kazachstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Afghanistan.

Sander with H.E. Nursultan Nazarbayev, President of Kazakhstan

1997 Transit

Deciding that his next station would be Indonesia, he went to take courses in Indonesian culture and contemporary history and a language course in Bahasa Indonesia in the Netherlands in the first part of 1997.

In the summer of 1997 he spent some weeks on the Financial Times office in Brussels (EU affairs) and on the FT head office in London (World Desk).

1997-1999

In September of 1997 he went to live in Jakarta to be the FT's Indonesia correspondent. In two years, he wrote 608 articles for the Financial Times and contributed regularly to the Christian Science Monitor (Boston, USA), Vrij Nederland and Radio Deutsche Welle (Germany). Covered the proces of change and chaos following the downfall of dictator Soeharto, from all over Indonesia. He also did some reporting for Marketplace, a radio program on National Public Radio focusing on national/international business.

Enjoying his last holiday in Thailand

In December of 1998 he got to know Ian Nugrahane over the internet. In April of 1999 he visited the Netherlands for the last time for his brother's wedding, for which he was best man.

21 september 1999

Killed by a gunshot in Dili, East Timor, covering the landing of the Interfet peace keepers in East Timor.

Sander at work during the referendum in East Timor in September 1999