Former militiaman gets six years for murder

Former militiaman gets six years for murder

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

An East Timorese militiaman was sentenced on Thursday to six
years imprisonment for the second-degree murder of a New Zealand
peacekeeping force soldier two years ago.

The Central Jakarta District Court dropped the first charge of
murder because defendant Yacobus Bere and victim Pvt. Leonard
William Manning did not know each other and did not have any
personal animosity toward each other, according to presiding
judge I Nengah Suriada.

Prosecutor Muhammad Syafei, who had earlier demanded the court
give Bere a 12-year jail term for manslaughter, said he would
appeal against the sentence.

On the one hand, the court said Bere had committed the crime
in a sadistic fashion, but on the other, it was believed that the
cause of the killing was "patriotism."

"The killing was motivated by his patriotism because he did
not want to see the country trampled by the enemy," Nengah said
in the verdict.

The 37-year-old defendant was a prointegration militiaman.

The court said that Bere, along with five other men, killed
Manning, 24, near Suai in East Timor, a former province of
Indonesia, on July 24, 2000, when the latter was serving with the
international peacekeeping force.

They were herding cows when the force tracked them down. Bere
shot Manning and took a sword that had been brought by one of his
friends, approaching the victim to ensure that he was dead. No
witness testified that Bere had used the sword to injure the
victim, but according to an autopsy report, Manning was shot
twice, his ears severed and throat slashed.

At present, the same court is hearing the cases of defendants
Fabianus Ulu, Yohanes Timo and Gabriel Halenoni. Prosecutors have
sought a 10-year jail term for each of them.

Two other defendants will be tried soon.

Bere's lawyer Nicholay AB said his client would appeal to the
Supreme Court directly instead of the Jakarta high court.

New Zealand Ambassador Chris Elder told The Jakarta Post that
he was pleased with the guilty verdict as the trial had been
conducted well. But he said he could not comment of the length of
the sentence.

"We were not directly involved with the prosecution. We will
consider (the sentence) further," he said outside the courtroom.

But the verdict sparked criticism from the New Zealand
government and the United Nations, AFP reported.

"We are disappointed at the short sentence, given the gravity
of the crime, and will ask the Indonesian authorities if they
will look at grounds for an appeal," Helen Clark, the New Zealand
prime minister, said.

Sergio Vieira de Mello, head of the United Nations
Transitional Administration in East Timor commented, "The killing
of a UN peacekeeper in cold blood should be considered a crime of
severe gravity and the sentence should reflect that."

Both New Zealand and the UN urged the government to appeal to
a higher court to increase the sentence.

Indonesia convicted six militiamen last year for the murder of
three UN aid workers in West Timor. They were sentenced to 10
months to 20 months in jail.

After the international community and the UN expressed their
disagreement with the length of the sentences, the high court
increased them to five years to seven years in jail.