Untitled Document

Agence France Presse
January 13, 2003

Indonesia's rights court postpones verdict on ex-Dili police chief

JAKARTA - An Indonesian human rights court Monday postponed handing down
its verdict on the former police chief in the East Timor capital Dili because
of failure to reach agreement.

Chief judge Andriani Nurdin said she and her colleagues had to adjourn the
trial of former Dili police chief Lieutenant Colonel Hulman Gultom until next
Monday because they "cannot reach a unanimous decision" on the verdict.

Nurdin told the Central Jakarta district court that the panel of five
judges
had agreed not to vote for the verdict but reach an unanimous decision.

Prosecutors have charged Gultom, 51, with failure to anticipate and prevent
an attack by pro-Indonesia militias on the refugee-packed house of
independence activist Manuel Carrascalao on April 17, 1999.

Twelve people were killed and many others wounded in the attack.
Prosecutors
have called for him to be sentenced to 10 years in prison.

They have also said Gultom had been "unable to control his subordinates,
especially in assuring security, had been unable to forecast the impact of
government policies on the local population and did not bring the perpetrators
to justice."

Judges do not have to follow the prosecutors' sentence recommendations if
they find the defendant guilty.

Gultom is one of 18 military and police officers, officials and civilians
who
have faced charges of gross human rights violations in April and September
1999.

Indonesia set up the rights court last year to deflect pressure for an
international war crimes tribunal.

But so far only one army officer and two East Timorese civilians have been
jailed while 10 members of the Indonesian security forces were acquitted by
the
court over the army-backed militia bloodshed before and after the territory
broke away from Indonesia.

A civilian has also been acquitted.

Five more senior soldiers or police officers, including the then regional
military chief Major General Adam Damiri, are still awaiting verdicts.

International rights groups have strongly criticised the previous
acquittals
and described the Indonesian court as a sham.