Indonesians 'tried
to stop E Timor killings'
Twenty-seven died
in the massacre in Suai in 1999
Three Indonesian military officers accused of human rights abuses in East
Timor attempted to prevent a massacre, a tribunal has heard.
In a blow for the
prosecution, one witness told the Jakarta tribunal that
the officers - who are accused of failing to prevent violence in the
country's former province - did try to halt killings in a church in 1999.
The evidence from Police Lieutenant Imam Jauhari contradicted that of
a
previous witness, Dominggas dos Santos Mouzinho, who testified last month
that Indonesian security forces stood by while anti-independence militiamen
attacked the church in Suai and carried out a rape.
Five Indonesian military
and police officers are charged with failing to
protect civilians in Suai, and could face the death sentence if convicted.
They are among 25 Indonesian officials indicted for violence in East Timor.
About 1,000 people
died during a rampage by pro-Jakarta militia before,
during and after East Timor's vote for independence in August 1999.
Twenty-seven of them
died at the hands of militiamen while taking refuge at
the Ave Maria Catholic Church in Suai on 6 September of that year.
Conflicting accounts
"The military
allowed this to happen," Mrs Mouzinho, who watched as her own
daughter was raped at the church, told the Central Jakarta District Court
at the end of May. "The soldiers were there but they did nothing."
[Indonesian-backed
militias on the rampage in 1999]
Indonesian-backed militias were blamed for the violence
But Mr Jauhari claimed
that the three defendants "worked very hard to
prevent the violence between the two sides", firing their weapons
to
disperse a mob attacking the church.
Prosecutors and rights
activists say militia gangs were established and
trained by Indonesian soldiers.
World watching
Jakarta is under intense international pressure to punish those responsible.
But many police and
military witnesses have used the tribunal as an
opportunity to defend their colleagues, and to blame the United Nations,
who sent in peacekeepers to end the violence.
The trials have been
widely criticised by human rights groups for not
including former military chief General Wiranto and other senior officials.
And witnesses from
East Timor have reportedly ignored summons to appear at
earlier court sessions because they fear for their safety in Indonesia.