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.