Rights court acquits military officer<\/p>\n
Moch. N. Kurniawan, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
Three days after sentencing an Army officer to five years in jail
\nbut allowing him to walk free pending an appeal, an ad hoc human
\nrights court acquitted on Monday a military officer of gross
\nhuman rights violations in East Timor.<\/p>\n
Col. Yayat Sudrajat, former task force commander at the Dili
\nMilitary Command, was found not guilty of failing to prevent an
\nattack on the Suai Church in Liquica on April 6, 1999. The attack
\nclaimed the lives of at least 22 people.<\/p>\n
Yayat is currently an assistant to the Army's Special Forces
\n(Kopassus) chief Maj. Gen. Sriyanto, in charge of logistics.<\/p>\n
\"Col. Yayat Sudrajat has not been legally and convincingly
\nproven of having engaged in the crime of human rights violations
\nas charged,\" presiding judge Cicut Sutiarso said.<\/p>\n
Cicut said the slaughter at the Suai Church was carried out by
\nthe militia Besi Merah Putih (Red-White Iron), which was not
\nunder the command of Yayat. \"Thus the defendant cannot be held
\nresponsible for the attack.\"<\/p>\n
Yayat told the court he accepted the verdict.<\/p>\n
Prosecutor Yusuf, who demanded Yayat be jailed for 10 years,
\nsaid he would consider the verdict for two weeks before deciding
\nwhether to file an appeal with the Supreme Court.<\/p>\n
He disagreed with the panel of judges who acquitted Yayat,
\nsaying the judges should have considered that the defendant was a
\nKopassus intelligence officer, whose subordinates must have
\ninformed him beforehand of the impending Suai Church massacre.<\/p>\n
\"But he did nothing to prevent the attack on the Suai Church
\nalthough he knew about it,\" Yusuf said.<\/p>\n
Various parties have accused Yayat of close links with the
\nmilitias that rampaged through East Timor, and of even
\ndistributing weapons to them.<\/p>\n
With Yayat's acquittal, 10 military and police officers and
\none civilian have been found not guilty by the ad hoc court.<\/p>\n
Two civilians, former East Timor governor Abilio Jose Osorio
\nSoares and former militia leader Eurico Guterres, were convicted
\nof rights violations and sentenced to three years and 10 years in
\njail, respectively.<\/p>\n
The former chief of the Dili military district, Lt. Col.
\nSoedjarwo, is the only military person to have been found guilty
\nby the court and sentenced, in this case to a five-year prison
\nterm. However, none of the three have begun serving their
\nsentences, pending their appeals.<\/p>\n
The court is still hearing testimony in the cases of Brig.
\nGen. M. Noer Muis and Maj. Gen. Adam Damiri, former chief of the
\nUdayana Military Command overseeing security in Bali, Nusa
\nTenggara and the then-East Timor province.<\/p>\n
Human rights activists have labeled the ad hoc court trials as
\nmere theatrics.<\/p>\n
They have called for the establishment of an international
\ntribunal to punish those guilty of crimes against humanity in
\nEast Timor.<\/p>\n
Over 1,000 people died and 250,000 others fled to East Nusa
\nTenggara in the violence in East Timor before, during and after
\nan independence vote in August 1999.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/rights-court-acquits-military-officer-1447893297",
"image": ""
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
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