Indonesia convicted its former civilian governor of East Timor yesterday of crimes against humanity around the time of the UN-supervised vote for independence in August 1999. Abilio Soares was jailed for three years for failing to stop 1,000 murders and widespread destruction.
The head of the UN mission in East Timor at the time, Mr Ian Martin, said the proceedings of the tribunal, set up to try 18 people accused of violence, were "an inversion of reality". He said the international community had a responsibility to ensure that justice was served.
His criticism was echoed by Western diplomats in Jakarta, international and East Timorese human rights organisations, including Amnesty International, and the foreign analysts monitoring the trials.
In their first verdict, the tribunal judges said Soares had been proved guilty of "not taking proper actions to prevent the violence from happening by using the information he had received from his subordinates".
They said the sentence was influenced by East Timorese President Xanana Gusmao, who had said that the real blame lay with the Indonesian military. - (Guardian service)