also: General on Aceh duty again skips his trial for rights abuses
Indonesia General Suratman Acquitted Of Abuses In E Timor
JAKARTA,
May 22 (AP)--An Indonesian court Thursday acquitted a former
Indonesian military commander in East Timor accused of not preventing
massacres during the country's bloody struggle for independence in 1999.
Brig. Gen.
Tono Suratman is the 12th defendant to be acquitted by the
court, a ruling that is expected to intensify criticism of the ad-hoc
tribunal that has already been called a sham by rights groups.
"Prosecutors
did not prove that the defendant committed gross human rights
violation in East Timor," said Judge Andi Samsan Nganro, who presided
over
the five-member panel. "Therefore the defendant has to be acquitted."
Suratman,
one of 18 Indonesian military and government officials charged
with crimes against humanity, said he was very relieved by the ruling.
Prosecutors said they planned to appeal the verdict.
Suratman
was accused of failing to prevent the deaths of five refugees
during an April 1999 attack on a church, and the killing of a dozen others
two weeks later when pro-Jakarta militiamen stormed into the home of
independence leader Manuel Carrascalao in Dili.
Suratman,
the deputy spokesman for the military command in Jakarta, has
denied the allegations. He told reporters Monday that he did everything
he
could to prevent the bloodshed.
Human rights
activists have criticized the Indonesian trials as a joke,
saying they were convened in order to defuse an international drive to
set
up a U.N. war crimes trial for East Timor akin to those for ex-Yugoslavia
and Rwanda.
Prosecutors
in the Timorese capital of Dili have launched their own war
crimes trials, indicting more than 260 people including the former chief
of
the Indonesian military Gen. Wiranto. Thirty - mostly former militiamen
-
have been convicted of crimes ranging from murder to rape.