Militiaman shows no remorse in N.Zealander's death
JAKARTA, Nov 8 (Reuters) - A pro-Jakarta militiaman accused of murdering
a
New Zealand peacekeeper in East Timor last year showed no remorse after
the
first day of his trial, a newspaper said on Thursday.
"I don't mind being tried or sentenced but I have done my duty to
defend the
red-and-white," the Jakarta Post quoted Yakobus Bere as saying in
reference
to Indonesia's national flag.
Bere, 37, is accused of the premeditated murder of Private Leonard Manning
in
July 2000. The maximum penalty is death, said Chuck Suryosumpeno, a spokesman
for the Attorney-General's office.
Bere and five other militiamen were involved in the killing, according
to
authorities. Previous reports said the victim and other New Zealand troops
had an exchange of fire with Bere's group when the peacekeepers were tracking
the militias down in the East Timor town of Suai.
East Timor voted overwhelmingly for independence from Indonesia in August
1999, prompting a backlash from armed pro-Jakarta militias backed by elements
in the Indonesian army.
The prosecutor tried to show that Bere wanted Manning dead when the trial
opened on Wednesday.
"After shooting the victim, the defendant took a sword brandished
by one of
his accomplices and approached him to make sure he was dead," The
Post quoted
state prosecutor Muhammad Syafei as saying.
The trial was adjourned until Tuesday when the defence team will enter
a
plea.
One of the other five alleged to have been in Bere's group has died.
Two
remain at large while two others are still detained in the West Timor
town of
Kupang.
An Australian-led intervention force sent in to restore order halted
most of
the activities of the militia which then herded thousands of East Timorese
across the border and erected squalid camps in Indonesia's West Timor.
A U.N. peacekeeping force about 9,000 strong replaced the Australians
in
October 1999. Manning was the force's first combat casualty.