The Jakarta Post
January 19, 2002
Convicted UN staff killers get heavier sentences
Tiarma Siboro, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The Supreme Court has increased the sentences of three men, convicted
of
killing three staff members of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees
(UNHCR) in West Timor in September 2000, to between five and seven years,
a
far heavier verdict than that previously handed down by the North Jakarta
District Court.
East Timor pro-integration militiamen Xisto Pereira, Sarafin Ximenes,
and
Joao Martin were initially sentenced to between 10 months and 15 months
by
the district court last May.
They were among six people convicted of conspiring to foment the violent
rampage in Atambua that resulted in the brutal killings of the workers,
and
the damage of property belonging to UNHCR.
The Supreme Court's verdict, issued on Nov. 15, was in line with the
appeal
sought by state prosecutors.
Chief Justice Bagir Manan said on Friday that the panel of judges
multiplied the jail terms because "the defendants' actions clearly
led to
the death of the UN staff."
Pereira, 26, and Martin, 27, were given five years' imprisonment, while
Ximenes, 26, was sentenced to seven.
"As the result of misconduct by the defendants, as well as the ensuing
mob,
the windows of the UNHCR office were damaged and three staff members of
the
UNHCR were killed ..." the justices said in their ruling.
The Supreme Court, however, has yet to issue its verdict over the case
involving three other militiamen -- Julius Naisama, Jose Francisco, and
Joao Alvez da Cruz -- who have been sentenced to between 16 months and
20
months for the lesser charge of fomenting violence in Atambua, a West
Timor
border town.
The three UN workers -- American (Puerto Rican) Carlos Casaeres, Ethiopian
Samson Aregahegn, and Peril Simundze, a Croatian national -- were hacked
to
death and then burned.
The murder sparked an international outcry and an exodus of international
aid workers from West Timor, leaving some 100,000 East Timorese refugees
in
the hands of Indonesian authorities and local aid workers.
Speaking to the Supreme Court's verdict, lawyer Frans Hendra Winarta
said
he doubted if the heavier sentence would give international credibility
to
Indonesia's legal system.
"I heard last month that the local East Timor court trying the same
case
sentenced the six militiamen to 30 years each. In the U.S., such
premeditated murder carries a life sentence -- and even in our country,
the
crime can carry 10 years of jail term.
"So this heavier verdict does nothing to improve our tarnished human
rights
image before the international community," Frans told The Jakarta
Post.
He wondered aloud whether the Supreme Court had a hidden agenda in
disclosing the verdict to the public a full two months after it was handed
down.
Indonesian law does not require the court to reveal verdicts in appeal
cases to the public.