E. Timor militiaman gets 12 years

E. Timor militiaman gets 12 years

DILI (AP): In the first successful prosecution for the
destruction of East Timor in 1999, an international court
sentenced a pro-Indonesian militiaman to 12 years in prison for
murder.

Joao Fernandes, a member of the Merah Putih (Red and White)
militia gang, was found guilty of killing a pro-independence
activist in the town of Maliana, close to the border with
Indonesian-held West Timor, on Sept. 8, 1999.

"This judgment should be enforced immediately," said presiding
judge Luca Ferrero. The Italian justice presided over a three-man
panel of judges at the Dili District Court.

Hundreds of people died and most of East Timor was destroyed
when the Indonesian army and its local auxiliaries went on a
rampage after voters decided to break away from Indonesia in a
UN-sponsored independence referendum in Aug. 1999.

Some 250,000 East Timorese were forced from their homes and
many fled to West Timor. Tens of thousands are still waiting for
repatriation to East Timor. Most militiamen also fled with the
retreating Indonesian troops.

The United Nations is administering East Timor during its
transition to full independence, expected next year. About 70
other militiamen implicated in the violence are in detention in
East Timor waiting for their trials to start.

Fernandes, 22, testified during his trial that Indonesian army
officers had given him a samurai sword and ordered him to kill
independence supporters.

He pleaded guilty to stabbing village chief Domingos Pereira
who had been hiding in the Maliana police station. Over 40 people
were killed in the massacre, according to UN investigators.

Outside the courtroom, members of the victim's family said
they were not satisfied with the sentence. "We wanted him to get
the maximum 28 years because of how much we have suffered," said
Isabella Pereira. She said she had witnessed the kidnapping of
her father before his death.

American prosecutor Brenda Sue Thornton, one of several
foreign lawyers working in the newly established court, said the
sentence corresponded to those handed down by war crimes
tribunals in Rwanda and Yugoslavia.

"The sentence reflected the fact that the defendant has agreed
to cooperate on other cases in the future," she said.

Meanwhile, Indonesia continues to drag its feet on promises to
bring to justice militiamen and others implicated in the violence
who are now on its soil.

Indonesian prosecutors have named 23 suspects, including
several senior army officers, in connection with the events of
1999. But none of them has been charged.

In Jakarta, notorious militia leader Eurico Guterres is
standing trial on unrelated weapons charges allegedly committed
in West Timor last year.

Six militiamen are currently on trial in Jakarta charged with
the murders of the three UN aid workers in West Timor last
September.