East
Timor Militia Leader Gets 10 Years
Associated Press Writer
JAKARTA,
Indonesia (AP) - An Indonesian court on Wednesday sentenced a
notorious militia leader to 10 years in prison for crimes committed during
East Timor (news - web sites)'s bloody break from Indonesia.
Eurico Guterres
listened impassively as the judge read out the sentence -
the harshest yet in a series of trials of Indonesian officers, officials
and militiamen accused of inciting or allowing the violence that shook
East
Timor after its independence vote on Aug. 30, 1999.
"The
judges find the defendant guilty of grave human rights violations and
crimes against humanity," Judge Herman Hutapea said.
Guterres
is the best known leader of the paramilitary gangs recruited by
the Indonesian army to combat pro-independence supporters in East Timor.
"I'm
confused about the ruling," Guterres later told reporters, insisting
that the people who should have been convicted were senior security officials.
He said
he would appeal the verdict - a move that will enable him to remain
free while the Supreme Court in Jakarta considers the case.
"Justice
has not been done," said East Timorese rights activist, Silvero
Batista Pinto, in the capital of Dili. "Guterres has committed torture
and
mass killings."
Prosecutors
had demanded that Guterres, who led the much-feared, Dili-based
Aitarak militia, be imprisoned for 10 years - the minimum punishment under
Indonesian law. He could have faced the death penalty.
Guterres
is only the second of 18 suspects to have been convicted. Former
province Gov. Abilio Soares was jailed for three years earlier this year.
So far, six police and military officers have been acquitted of all charges.
The judge
said that on April 7, 1999, Guterres instructed hundreds of his
militiamen to kill pro-independence leaders. Shortly thereafter, a
pro-Indonesian mob murdered 12 people sheltering at the home of one such
leader, Manuel Carascalao, in Dili.
The string
of light sentences and not-guilty verdicts has angered human
rights groups, who long have feared that most of the guilty would go
unpunished, despite Indonesia's promises to the international community
that justice will be done.
Hendardi,
an Indonesian human rights activist, said Guterres had been
"sacrificed" to protect the military.
"It
shows that the military, especially the generals, have privileges,"
said Hendardi, who goes by a single name. "They are untouchable by
law."
The United
Nations (news - web sites) has blamed Indonesia's army and its
militia proxies for the violence before, during and after the U.N-sponsored
referendum on independence. Nearly 2,000 civilians were killed and 250,000
were forced to flee their homes.
East Timor
gained full independence in May, after a period of transitional
rule by the United Nations.