East Timor jails former militiamen<\/p>\n
EAST TIMOR: Eight former pro-Jakarta militiamen have been jailed
\nin East Timor for murders committed in mayhem surrounding a 1999
\nUN-backed vote that led to the country's separation from
\nIndonesia, officials said on Monday.<\/p>\n
A special court issued last Monday verdicts in two cases
\ninvolving the eight, bringing to 63 the number of people
\nconvicted in East Timor over the violence, according to a
\nstatement by the country's serious crime unit.<\/p>\n
Among those jailed was Mateus Lao, who was imprisoned for
\neight years for murdering a man who tried to flee into
\nIndonesian-controlled West Timor. Seven others received sentences
\nof between four and five years for an incident in which three
\npeople were murdered in the East Timorese village of Netensuan.<\/p>\n
Indonesian troops and their local militia proxies waged a
\nsavage campaign of intimidation and revenge in the months around
\nthe August 1999 poll, which saw East Timorese vote overwhelmingly
\nto split from Indonesia. An estimated 1,000 people were killed
\nand whole towns razed.<\/p>\n
United Nations-funded prosecutors have indicted 369 people,
\nincluding former Indonesian armed forces chief General Wiranto,
\nbut 281 of them are in Indonesia, which refuses to hand anyone
\nover for trial. -- AFP<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/east-timor-jails-former-militiamen-1447893297",
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