E. Timorese jailed for killing UN workers

E. Timorese jailed for killing UN workers

Agence France-Presse, Dili

A court in East Timor on Tuesday jailed a former militiaman for 10-and-a-half years over the murder of two local United Nations workers during the territory's bloody breakaway from Indonesia in 1999.

Salvador Soares was sentenced for what prosecutors called a targeted attack by Indonesian troops and their militia allies.

The attack in the town of Maliana in September 1999 was led by an army sergeant, prosecutors said in a statement announcing the verdict.

Soares was arrested while crossing into East Timor from Indonesian West Timor in June 2002.

United Nations-funded prosecutors from the Serious Crimes Unit have charged two Indonesian army intelligence officers and eight militiamen including Soares for the Maliana murders.

Nine of the 10 are in Indonesia, which refuses to hand anyone over for trial.

The two UN employees, Ruben Barros and Dominggos Pereira, had been helping administer the August 1999 referendum in which East Timorese voted overwhelmingly to break away from Indonesia.

It was the second conviction for murdering East Timorese UN staff, 10 of whom were killed or disappeared in September 1999.

The East Timor special court has convicted 41 people since 1999 and acquitted one. Prosecutors have indicted 369 people, but 281 of them, including 37 Indonesian military commanders or lower-ranking officers, are in Indonesia.

The militias waged a savage intimidation campaign before the referendum and a revenge campaign afterwards. An estimated 1,000 people were killed and whole towns were burnt to the ground.

Indonesia set up its own court to try offenders but rights groups described it as a sham.

Former armed forces chief Wiranto, who has been indicted in East Timor for crimes against humanity, plans to stand for president next year. He denies the charges.