East Timor's president criticizes jail term for ex-governor over

East Timor's president criticizes jail term for ex-governor over
1999 violence

Guido Guilliart
Associated Press/Dili

East Timor's president said on Monday that Indonesian security
forces were responsible for the violence that swept his country
in 1999 - not the territory's last governor, who began serving a
jail term in Indonesia over the weekend.

Xanana Gusmao said former governor Abilio Jose Soares, who is
ethnically East Timorese, should not have been imprisoned for the
violence that accompanied the country's break from 24 years of
Indonesian rule in 1999.

"He is a political scapegoat," Gusmao said. "A civilian
governor was not responsible for the violence at that time."

Soares began a three-year prison term on Saturday, becoming
the first person to be punished in Indonesia over the bloodshed.

Gusmao said Indonesian police and military officials should be
blamed because they signed an agreement before a United Nations
(UN)-sponsored referendum on independence accepting
responsibility for security during the ballot.

As many as 2,000 people were killed and much of East Timor was
destroyed in 1999 by rampaging pro-Indonesian militia.

Gusmao has not aggressively pushed Indonesia to punish those
responsible for the violence, saying that maintaining good ties
between the two countries was more important.

Former legislator Manuel Viegas Carrascalao, who lost his son
in a militia attack ahead of the vote, said Soares deserved the
punishment.

"Maybe he did not kill anyone, but he let others kill," he
said. "When the militias killed my son, he stayed silent."

Soares was the first Indonesian official to be punished for
the bloodshed out of 18 mostly military and police officials
originally put on trial. He was convicted of failing to stop the
violence.

Fifteen others have been acquitted. Appeals by two remaining
defendants are expected soon.

Critics say the string of not-guilty verdicts handed down in
Indonesia means it has failed to live up to its promises to
punish those responsible for the violence.