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UNHCR Calls Sentences For Timor Staff Killings A "Mockery"
GENEVA, May 4 (News Agencies) - The U.N. refugee agency UNHCR on Friday slammed as a "mockery" the light sentences handed down by an Indonesian court to six East Timorese men for last year's killings of three U.N. aid workers in West Timor.
"The sentences make a mockery of the international community's insistence that justice be done in this horrific case," the Geneva-based organization said in a statement.
The government of Croatia, one of whose nationals was among those killed, also protested at what it said was "inappropriately light sentences for the perpetrators of one of the heaviest assaults on the civil staff of the United Nations."
A Jakarta court earlier Friday sentenced Julius Naisama, 35, Jose Francisco, 30, and Joao Alvez da Cruz, 26, to between 16 and 20 months in jail for "conspiring to foment violence" which resulted in the deaths of the three United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) workers.
Manslaughter charges were dropped because the attack was carried out "by a mob, which makes it difficult to determine the perpetrators of the deaths" and because the mutilation of the bodies made it "difficult to identify who committed the manslaughter," Judge Anak Agung Gde Dalem said.
"UNHCR is deeply disturbed by the light sentences given by a Jakarta court today [Friday] to six men in connection with the killing last year of three UNHCR staff members in West Timor."
"While UNHCR had been heartened by assurances from the Indonesian judiciary that the members would be fully investigated and the perpetrators brought to trial, today's outcome leaves us extremely disappointed."
Two others, Xisto Pereira and Joao Martins were sentenced to 10 months each and a sixth, Serafin Ximenes, to 15 months for "conspiring to foment violence which resulted in the damages of property."
Referring to increasing attacks against international aid workers, the Geneva statement said "the U.N. and many in the international community have expressed outrage over these continuing attacks and insisted the governments do everything in their power to prevent and address such incidents."
"Today's sentencing sends the opposite message. It flies in the face of world opinion and is an affront to the memory of those humanitarians who have given their lives in the service of others," the UNHCR said.
In Jakarta, the United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET) representative office expressed outrage, also branding "the whole process" a mockery.
"We think it's particularly outrageous that the defendants' unhappiness with the result of the [1999] East Timor independence referendum was mentioned by the judge as a mitigating circumstance," UNTAET political affairs officer Elisabeth Moorphy said.
UNTAET also condemned the sentences originally sought by the prosecutors as "too light to begin with."
The Croatian government statement, released in Zagreb, said the sentences showed an "extreme disregard for innocent victims."
Prosecutors originally sought sentences ranging from 18 to 40 months.
Indonesian human rights activists also condemned the verdict.
"This often happens in Indonesia - the categories of crimes are minimalized, and punishments are reduced," rights lawyer Hendardi, who heads the Indonesian Legal Aid and Human Rights Association (PBHI) said.
"But the problem in a case like this is we're facing the international community. Can they accept this?
"I think the international community is starting to lose faith in the Indonesian government's law enforcement efforts."
The secretary general of Indonesia's Human Rights Commission (Komnas Ham), Asmara Nababan, implored prosecutors to appeal.
"They should appeal to the High Court against not only the light sentence but also the lessened charge," he said, adding that the outcome showed Indonesia's judicial system was still devoid of credibility.
Three UNHCR workers, an American, a Croatian and an Ethiopian, were hacked to death and their bodies burned in the West Timor border town of Atambua last September.
U.N. and other aid workers were evacuated from West Timor following the incident.
The verdicts come as doubts grow among rights observers about Indonesia's commitment to prosecuting the perpetrators of the violence surrounding East Timor's August 1999 autonomy ballot.
Indonesia has promised to carry out its own prosecutions to avoid handing the accused over to an international war crimes tribunal.
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