Annan shocked by sentences for UN staff murderers<\/p>\n
UNITED NATIONS (Agencies): UN Secretary General Kofi Annan
\nexpressed shock on Friday at the lenient sentences handed down by
\nan Indonesian court to six East Timorese men for last year's
\nmurder of three UN aid workers in West Timor.<\/p>\n
\"The ruling appears incommensurate with what is known to have
\nbeen deliberate and brutal killings,\" Annan said in a statement
\nthrough his spokesman.<\/p>\n
The Security Council, for its part, asked its president, James
\nCunningham, to meet with Indonesia's ambassador to the United
\nNations Makarim Wibisono to seek an explanation of the sentences,
\nwhich ranged from 10 to 20 months in jail.<\/p>\n
Cunningham, the acting U.S. ambassador to the UN, said the
\ncouncil wanted to ensure justice was done and send a message
\n\"that there can be no impunity for those who use violence against
\nUN or international humanitarian staff\".<\/p>\n
He told reporters he would meet Wibisono next week.<\/p>\n
Earlier the North Jakarta District Court sentenced six men for
\ntheir part in the violence which led to the death of three
\nmembers of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in the
\nWest Timor border town of Atambua on Sept. 6 last year.<\/p>\n
The bodies were later burned, a fact which the presiding
\njudge, Anak Agung Gde Dalem, used to explain why more serious
\nchanges against the accused were dropped.<\/p>\n
Annan described the sentences as \"a blow to the international
\ncommunity's efforts to ensure the safety and security of
\nhumanitarian personnel\".<\/p>\n
The sentences were \"a wholly unacceptable response to the
\nultimate sacrifice which Pero Simundza, Samson Aregahegn and
\nCarlos Caceras made in humanitarian service,\" he said.<\/p>\n
Three of the accused -- Julius Naisama, 35, Jose Francisco,
\n30, and Joao Alvez da Cruz, 26, -- were sentenced to between 16
\nand 20 months in jail for \"conspiring to foment violence\".<\/p>\n
The judge said manslaughter charges were dropped because the
\nattack was carried out \"by a mob which makes it difficult to
\ndetermine the perpetrators of the deaths\" and because the
\nmutilation of the bodies made it \"difficult to identify who
\ncommitted the manslaughter\".<\/p>\n
Two other accused, Xisto Pereira and Joao Martins were
\nsentenced to 10 months each and a sixth, Serafin Ximenes, to 15
\nmonths for \"conspiring to foment violence which resulted in the
\ndamage of property.\"<\/p>\n
In Washington, the U.S. government said it was \"extremely
\ndisappointed\" with the lenient sentences handed down to the East
\nTimorese men for the murders of three UN workers, one of whom was
\nAmerican.<\/p>\n
The sentences \"call into question Indonesia's commitment to
\nthe principle of accountability,\" said State Department spokesman
\nRichard Boucher.<\/p>\n
The verdicts come amid growing doubts among observers about
\nIndonesia's commitment to prosecuting the perpetrators of
\nviolence surrounding East Timor's August 1999 vote for
\nindependence from Jakarta.<\/p>\n
Jakarta has promised to carry out its own prosecutions to
\navoid handing the accused over to an international war crimes
\ntribunal.<\/p>\n
In apparent response to the international skepticism, Attorney
\nGeneral Marzuki Darusman said on Saturday the Indonesian
\ngovernment would appeal for heavier punishments for the six East
\nTimorese men.<\/p>\n
\"We still want the verdicts the same as our demand, which is
\naround three years in jail,\" Marzuki said on the sidelines of the
\ninduction ceremony of two deputy chief justices at Bina Graha
\npresidential office.<\/p>\n
Marzuki was cool on international disappointment and doubts
\nover Indonesia's commitment to upholding human rights.<\/p>\n
\"The more important thing is that the supremacy of law works
\nas it does,\" he said.<\/p>",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
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