Annan shocked by sentences for UN staff murderers

Annan shocked by sentences for UN staff murderers

UNITED NATIONS (Agencies): UN Secretary General Kofi Annan expressed shock on Friday at the lenient sentences handed down by an Indonesian court to six East Timorese men for last year's murder of three UN aid workers in West Timor.

"The ruling appears incommensurate with what is known to have been deliberate and brutal killings," Annan said in a statement through his spokesman.

The Security Council, for its part, asked its president, James Cunningham, to meet with Indonesia's ambassador to the United Nations Makarim Wibisono to seek an explanation of the sentences, which ranged from 10 to 20 months in jail.

Cunningham, the acting U.S. ambassador to the UN, said the council wanted to ensure justice was done and send a message "that there can be no impunity for those who use violence against UN or international humanitarian staff".

He told reporters he would meet Wibisono next week.

Earlier the North Jakarta District Court sentenced six men for their part in the violence which led to the death of three members of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in the West Timor border town of Atambua on Sept. 6 last year.

The bodies were later burned, a fact which the presiding judge, Anak Agung Gde Dalem, used to explain why more serious changes against the accused were dropped.

Annan described the sentences as "a blow to the international community's efforts to ensure the safety and security of humanitarian personnel".

The sentences were "a wholly unacceptable response to the ultimate sacrifice which Pero Simundza, Samson Aregahegn and Carlos Caceras made in humanitarian service," he said.

Three of the accused -- Julius Naisama, 35, Jose Francisco, 30, and Joao Alvez da Cruz, 26, -- were sentenced to between 16 and 20 months in jail for "conspiring to foment violence".

The judge said manslaughter charges were dropped because the attack was carried out "by a mob which makes it difficult to determine the perpetrators of the deaths" and because the mutilation of the bodies made it "difficult to identify who committed the manslaughter".

Two other accused, Xisto Pereira and Joao Martins were sentenced to 10 months each and a sixth, Serafin Ximenes, to 15 months for "conspiring to foment violence which resulted in the damage of property."

In Washington, the U.S. government said it was "extremely disappointed" with the lenient sentences handed down to the East Timorese men for the murders of three UN workers, one of whom was American.

The sentences "call into question Indonesia's commitment to the principle of accountability," said State Department spokesman Richard Boucher.

The verdicts come amid growing doubts among observers about Indonesia's commitment to prosecuting the perpetrators of violence surrounding East Timor's August 1999 vote for independence from Jakarta.

Jakarta has promised to carry out its own prosecutions to avoid handing the accused over to an international war crimes tribunal.

In apparent response to the international skepticism, Attorney General Marzuki Darusman said on Saturday the Indonesian government would appeal for heavier punishments for the six East Timorese men.

"We still want the verdicts the same as our demand, which is around three years in jail," Marzuki said on the sidelines of the induction ceremony of two deputy chief justices at Bina Graha presidential office.

Marzuki was cool on international disappointment and doubts over Indonesia's commitment to upholding human rights.

"The more important thing is that the supremacy of law works as it does," he said.