Two Indonesian courts yesterday acquitted a general and five other officers accused of grave human-rights violations when East Timor voted for independence in 1999.
The verdict outraged human-rights groups, who have long feared that most of those who unleashed bloody mayhem across the half-island state would go unpunished, despite Indonesia's promises to the international community that justice will be done.
Concerned that future prosecutions against 11 other Indonesian officials would also collapse, some demanded the UN set up an independent war-crimes tribunal.
Military and police officers along with families and friends cheered and hugged yesterday's defendants when the "not guilty" verdicts were read.
One court cleared Brigadier General Timbul Silaen -- Indo-nesia's last police chief in East Timor -- of charges that he allowed his men to take part in atrocities or did nothing to stop a rampage by paramilitary gangs who opposed independence from Indonesia.
Later, another court acquitted a group of two active colonels and two majors in the army and police force, along with a retired army colonel.
"The defendants have not been proven guilty and therefore should be acquitted of all charges," said Judge Cicut Sutiarso.
He said there was "no evidence" they had conspired with the gangs who ended the violence when a multinational peacekeeping force arrived.
All had been charged with allowing men under their command to commit atrocities, which included rape, murder and driving hundreds of thousands of people from their homes.
"We are very touched by the court's decision which has shown truth and justice," said retired army Colonel Herman Sedyono, one of the defendants.
"We are religious people. How can we commit murder or allow other people to commit murder?"
On Wednesday, the Indonesian-appointed governor of East Timor received only three years for his part in the violence.
The outside world has demanded Indonesia prosecute those responsible for the wave of killing, burning and looting that followed the overwhelming vote for independence in August 1999.
However, rights groups have had little faith in Indonesia's courts, long tainted by corruption and political interference, to handle the cases impartially.
"From the beginning, there was a lot of doubt about the court proceedings. East Timorese no longer believe in the justice system in Indonesia," said Aniceto Neves, who heads the rights group Yayasan HAK, in East Timor's capital, Dili.
The trials of the 18 former officials in East Timor have been widely criticized for failing to adequately portray the role of the Indonesian security forces in the violence. The UN and foreign governments say the security forces orchestrated the atrocities.
The sentencing Wednesday of the province's former governor -- Abilio Soares -- to three years imprisonment was the first verdict in the series of trials.
East Timorese leaders had expressed sympathy for Soares -- one of only three Timorese among the 18 defendants.
"It is as if the responsibility of the crimes that happened here will only be borne by East Timorese people," Neves said.
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