East Timor court jails two ex-militia bosses
East Timor court jails two ex-militia bosses
Agence France-Presse, Dili
An East Timor court on Wednesday jailed two former militia leaders for crimes against humanity during the territory's bloody breakaway from Indonesia in 1999.
The Special Panel for Serious Crimes jailed Benjamin Sarmento for 12 years and Romeriro Tilman for eight, the United Nations- funded Serious Crimes Unit said in a statement.
The two former leaders of the pro-Indonesia Tim Sasurat Ablai militia were arrested along with several other former militiamen who had infiltrated East Timor from Indonesian West Timor in September 2000.
Sarmento was convicted on five counts of crimes against humanity. He had admitted killing five independence supporters in four separate incidents in Same district in 1999.
Tilman, convicted of two counts of crime against humanity, had pleaded guilty to ordering the killing of two independence supporters in the same area.
The two also admitted forced transportation of civilians from villages in Same to West Timor after East Timor voted overwhelmingly in August 1999 to break from Indonesia.
The militias, organiszd by the Indonesian military, waged a savage intimidation campaign before the independence vote and a revenge campaign afterwards, during which tens of thousands were forced over the border into West Timor.
An estimated 1,000 people were murdered in 1999. The territory finally gained independence in May 2002 after a period of UN stewardship.
The Special Panels for Serious Crimes is made up of two international judges and one East Timorese. Since 2001, when its hearings began, 34 people have been convicted.
Prosecutors from the Serious Crimes Unit have filed 65 indictments with the special panel charging a total of 301 people including top-ranking Indonesian military officers.
Of those indicted 221 remain at large in Indonesia, which refuses to hand anyone over for trial.
Indonesia set up its own human rights court to try offenders over the 1999 violence but rights groups describe it as a sham. It has acquitted 11 security force members and one civilian. Five people including two army officers have been ordered jailed but remain free pending appeals.