Jakarta not totally satisfied with Timor verdicts

Indonesia's Attorney-General has said his office wanted heavier sentences imposed on six men over the killing of three U.N

Indonesia's Attorney-General has said his office wanted heavier sentences imposed on six men over the killing of three U.N. aid workers in West Timor, adding no decision had been made to lodge an appeal.

Asked by reporters if Indonesia's image had been blackened by the verdicts on Friday, which triggered a storm of international outrage for being too lenient, Mr Marzuki Darusman said: "That is relative. What is important is that the law is carried out."

An Indonesian court jailed the six for up to 20 months over the killings - relatively light sentences that have caused the international community to refocus on Indonesia over its faltering efforts to account for bloody violence in East and West Timor.

The three foreign workers with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) were stabbed and their bodies dragged into the street and burned after a mob attacked their office in the West Timor border town of Atambua last September.

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"We are still studying whether we are going to appeal," said Mr Darusman.

Officials said prosecutors had demanded sentences ranging around three years, terms that almost certainly would still have outraged the United Nations and foreign governments.

According to the original charges, all six had faced up to 34 years in prison over the slayings of the three U.N. workers - an American, a Croat and an Ethiopian.

The North Jakarta Court said when sentencing three of the men that it was difficult to link the deaths of the U.N. staff to the defendants because the action was perpetrated by a mob.

The six men, all East Timorese who consider themselves Indonesian, received sentences ranging from 10 to 20 months.

In a statement the UNHCR said: "The sentences make a mockery of the international community's insistence that justice be done in this horrific case."

In New York, U.N. Secretary-General Mr Kofi Annan said he was shocked at the light sentences and called the ruling an unacceptable response to a despicable act.