In an unprecedented verdict, the former governor of East Timor was convicted yesterday of allowing massacres and sentenced to three years in prison.
Abilio Soares punched his fist into the air after hearing the verdict, which was the first in a series of trials of former Indonesian officials charged with crimes against humanity. He promised to appeal.
"I've been made a scapegoat," Soares told reporters. "How can I, one person, disband a militia which is armed with spears, axes and guns?"
The verdict was delivered by a human-rights court hearing the cases of 18 former officials charged with crimes against humanity for their alleged involvement in violence that shook East Timor at the time of its 1999 independence referendum.
Though the guilty verdict will be welcomed by human-rights activists, the seemingly short jail sentence is likely to be condemned. Activists have repeatedly said Indonesia was incapable of bringing to justice those responsible for the bloodshed in East Timor and that a UN war-crimes tribunal was needed.
Soares was Indonesia's governor of East Timor during the UN-organized plebiscite. He is only one of three Timorese among the defendants, who include the Indonesian military and police commanders of the province at the time.
Judge Emmy Murni Mustafa said the defendant had "failed to prevent his men from committing grave human rights violations."
She said Soares was given a lighter sentence than the 10 1/2 years requested by the prosecution because of a request for leniency from East Timorese President Xanana Gusmao.
"The letter shows a spirit of reconciliation, which could have been buried by a heavy sentence," Mustafa said.
The ad hoc human-rights court was established last year in response to intense international pressure for Jakarta to bring to justice those responsible for the bloodshed.
The defendants are not required to enter pleas at the trials, but all have expressed their innocence to reporters outside the courthouse.
During his trial, Soares said his only role was to mediate between rival groups in the former Indonesian province and that he personally never committed any crimes.
Prosecutors, however, claimed he did nothing to stop four massacres in the province.
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