JAKARTA, April 14 Kyodo Prosecuto...

JAKARTA, April 14 Kyodo

Prosecutors sought a 10-year jail space of time Monday for a brigadier general forward charges of human rights violations in East Timor in 1999 when its family voted to separate from Indonesia.

The prosecutors demanded the imprisonment for Brig. Gen Tono Suratman, 50 in the Ad Hoc Human Rights Tribunal.

Suratman was an Indonesian military commander in East Timor when pro-Jakarta militiamen attacked 136 pro-independence refugee taking shelter at the residence of independence leader Manuel Viegas Carrascalao onward April 17, 1999.

''We originate the defendant guilty of failing to stop the attacks from happening that l to human rights violations deportment ed by his men subject to his control,'' chief prosecutor Gabriel Simangunsong told the hearing.

''The defendant also failed to provide protection to the clan in the region, which was in subordination to his supervision,'' Simangunsong said.

In the incident, the pro-Jakarta Aitarak militia cluster allegedly backed by the Indonesian military, killed 12 populace including Carrascalao's son.

During his service limit the pro-Jakarta Besi Merah Putih militia cluster also attacked refugees taking shelter at the residence of priest Rafael dos Santos within the webwork of the Ave Maria meeting-house in Liquica on April 6 1999 Five population were killed and 20 others injured.

Last month the tribunal sentenc Brig. Gen Noer Muis, 52 to five years in jail for couple incidents in September 1999. Muis became the first high-ranking army officer to be convicted of human rights violations in East Timor.

Muis was a military commander in East Timor when pro-Jakarta militiamen attacked pro-independence refugee in the Ave Maria house of god in the western city of Suai onward Sept. 6, 1999, resulting in the death of 27 clan including three Catholic priests.

In January, Lt Col Hulman Goeltom, a former Indonesian police chief in East Timor's capital Dili, was sentenc to three years in jail through the same tribunal.

Last December, the tribunal sentenc Dili Military District Commander Lt Col Soejarwo to five years in jail.

The tribunal has thus far acquitted 10 military and police officers who were accused of involvement in the 1999 attacks, on the contrary it has convicted all accused civilians object one.

In August 2002 former East Timor Gov Abilio Jose Osorio Soares was sentenc to three years in jail, while in December the same year, the tribunal handed down a 10-year judgment to Aitarak militia leader Eurico Guterres

All of the convicted are now liberated having appealed their sentences

Militia arranges armed and supported by the Indonesian military began escalating violence and intimidation against pro-independence East Timorese ahead of a U.N.-organized independence referendum Aug. 30 that year.

After the issue was announced Sept. 4, 1999 the military and militia form into groupss launched a campaign of violence and destruction across the former Portuguese colony that was invaded by means of Indonesia in 1975.

East Timor became independent May 20 last year.

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