Army Official Found Guilty in Timor Violence

An army commander was sentenced Friday to five years in prison for failing to prevent killings in East Timor, making him the first Indonesian official to be convicted for the violence.

Lt. Col. Soedjarwo was found guilty of failing to prevent pro-Jakarta militias from attacking the office and home of Roman Catholic Bishop Carlos Ximenes Belo after East Timor voted to break from Indonesia in 1999. Fifteen people were killed, and the bishop fled to Australia.

The verdict and sentencing followed an outcry over a series of earlier acquittals of other Indonesian soldiers and officials.

The prison term for Soedjarwo was half what prosecutors sought, and he will be able to remain free while he appeals. Human rights groups said the sentence was inadequate.

Soedjarwo headed the Indonesian military command in the East Timorese capital, Dili, when East Timor, then an Indonesian territory, voted for independence in a referendum.

“The defendant has been found guilty of committing grave human rights violations,” Judge Andi Samsam Nganro said. Soedjarwo, who goes by a single name, refused to speak with reporters as he left the courthouse.

Under Indonesian law, Soedjarwo could have been sentenced to death. But the judge said the defendant “did his best to prevent some of the violence.”