UN soldier murder trial unfinished

UN soldier murder trial unfinished

Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The government urged all concerned parties on Friday to
exercise restraint in light of the sentence of an East Timorese
militiaman for killing a peacekeeping soldier from New Zealand in
July 2000.

Spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Marty Natalegawa
said at a press conference that the legal process in the case was
not complete, and that the Indonesian government was fully aware
of demands for an appeal.

"It is not the court's job to satisfy all parties in one case
-- the legal process is still underway, and we should let it
continue," Marty said.

The Central Jakarta District Court on Thursday sentenced
former East Timor anti-independence militiaman Jacobus Bere to
six years in prison for second-degree murder in the murder of
private Leonard Manning, a UN peacekeeper from New Zealand, in
Suai near the border with West Timor.

The sentence was half as long as what had been sought by the
prosecution. The court also dropped the premeditated murder
charges, as both Bere and Manning did not know each other.

New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark was the latest to
express disappointment with the light sentence on Friday.

Clark said she would ask the Indonesian authorities if they
plan to appeal the verdict.

"The prosecution asked for a 12-year sentence -- the maximum
is 15, and it seems to us that they will probably also be
somewhat disappointed that the judge came down with a sentence of
half what they asked for," Clark said, as quoted by Associated
Press.

"This was a particularly repugnant crime," she said. "This was
a crime where a young man serving with a blue beret and a
peacekeeping force was murdered in a particularly grotesque way
-- and that calls for a harsher sentence."

Prosecutors said Bere shot Manning then cut his throat with a
dagger and slashed an ear off. Manning was the first New Zealand
soldier to die on active duty since the Vietnam War.

Bere, too, has said he will appeal the decision.

The Central Jakarta District Court is also trying three other
Indonesian militiamen for manslaughter in connection with the
incident, with verdicts expected to be issued later this month.

Marty emphasized that both the Indonesian and New Zealand
governments had been cooperating in tackling the case.