Ex-East Timor Governor Convicted
Wed Aug 14, 6:55 AM ET
By STEVEN GUTKIN, Associated Press Writer
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) - In the first verdict in a series of trials
of
former Indonesian officials charged with crimes against humanity, the
ex-governor of East Timor ( news - web sites) was convicted Wednesday
of
allowing massacres and sentenced to three years in prison.
Abilio Soares punched his fist into the air after hearing the verdict
and
promised to appeal. Prosecutors, too, said they would appeal what they
described as a too-lenient sentence.
"I've been made a scapegoat," Soares told reporters. "How
can I, one
person, disband a militia which is armed with spears, axes and guns?"
The verdict was delivered by a human rights court trying the cases of
18
former officials charged with crimes against humanity for their alleged
involvement in violence that shook East Timor at the time of its 1999
independence referendum.
Human rights groups have called the trials a whitewash - and Soares'
three-year sentence was likely to do little to dispel that impression.
"This shows that Indonesia is not serious about justice for what
happened
in East Timor," said Rosentino Amaduhei of Yayasan Hak, East Timor's
leading human rights organization.
Speaking in the East Timorese capital of Dili, he said a three-year
sentence was ridiculous, adding that individual militiamen had been
sentenced to 20 years in jail in East Timor for a single murder.
"The verdict is irrelevant as the process from the beginning was
deeply,
deeply flawed," said Sidney Jones from the Brussels-based think tank
International Crisis Group. "By no stretch of the imagination can
you say
justice has been achieved."
Soares was Indonesia's governor of East Timor during the U.N.-organized
plebiscite. He is one of three Timorese among the 18 defendants, who
include the Indonesian military and police commanders of the province
at
the time.
Judge Emmy Murni Mustafa said the defendant had "failed to prevent
his men
from committing grave human rights violations."
She said Soares was given a lighter sentence than the 10 years requested
by
the prosecution because of a request for leniency from East Timorese
President Xanana Gusmao.
"The letter shows a spirit of reconciliation, which could have been
buried
by a heavy sentence," Mustafa said.
The ad hoc human rights court was established last year in response to
intense international pressure for Jakarta to bring to justice those
responsible for the bloodshed.
The Jakarta trials - played out since March in cramped and sweltering
courtrooms - have been fraught with shortcomings, critics say.
The indictments play down the role of the military, which the United
Nations (has blamed for the violence.
But Judge Mustafa echoed the government position, saying both sides were
to
blame.
"The clashes which occurred were started by both the pro-independence
and
anti-independence groups so therefore both sides must share the
responsibility for the violence," she said.
If the trials of three army and police generals result in convictions,
it
would be the first time high-ranking Indonesian military commanders have
been punished for decades of abuses in East Timor and elsewhere in the
country.
Hundreds were killed in the lead-up to the Aug. 30, 1999 referendum that
saw the overwhelming majority of Timorese vote for independence. After
the
ballot, Indonesia's army and its militia proxies killed up to 1,000 people
and forced at least 250,000 others to flee to neighboring West Timor.
The violence only ended when an Australian-led peacekeeping force arrived
in September 1999. In May, the nation of 800,000 declared its nationhood
after 2 years of U.N. administration.