East Timorese Militia Leader Gets Prison
A notorious militia leader wanted by the United Nations for crimes committed in East Timor was sentenced Monday by an Indonesian court to six months in prison for weapons offenses.
The verdict against Eurico Guterres is likely to anger U.N. officials and human rights campaigners who want Indonesia to prosecute those responsible for the destruction of much of East Timor.
Chief Judge Suwardi, who like many Indonesians uses only one name, said Guterres had ordered his followers to take back weapons they had surrendered to authorities in September.
The East Timorese voted overwhelmingly in a referendum in August 1999 to end a quarter-century of Indonesian military occupation and become independent. The vote sparked a three-week rampage by anti-independence militias. Hundreds of people were killed, and about 300,000 others were forced to flee.
Guterres’ Aitarak militia was responsible for much of the violence in and around the capital, Dili.
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