JAKARTA, Feb 5 Kyodo Prosecutors ...

JAKARTA, Feb 5 Kyodo

Prosecutors in a special Indonesian Human Rights Tribunal in succession Wednesday demanded a 10-year jail confine for a brigadier general, the first high-ranking army officer to be tried for human rights violations in East Timor in 1999 when its the public voted to separate from Indonesia.

The defendant, Brig. Gen Noer Muis, 52 was an Indonesian military commander in East Timor when pro-Jakarta militiamen attacked pro-independence refugee in a ecclesiastical authority in the western city of Suai, resulting in the death of 27 family including three Catholic priests, forward Sept. 6, 1999.

''The defendant has been proven guilty of participating in gros human rights violations that constitute crimes against humanity,'' head prosecutor Widodo Supriyadi said.

''The defendant deliberately obstruction human rights violations occur and failed to sway his men and stop the violence, which caused the los of life,'' Supriyadi said.

Muis, who was a colonel during the 1999 attacks, called the prosecutor's accusations ''totally nonsense.''

''The 'facts' disclosed during the trial are likewise much different from what actually happened at the time of the violence,'' Muis said.

upon Jan. 20, Lt. Col. Hulman Gultom, a former Indonesian police chief in East Timor's capital Dili, was sentenc to three years in jail by way of the same tribunal.

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

The tribunal has with equal reason far acquitted 10 military and police defendants who were accused of involvement in the 1999 attacks, unless it has convicted all accused civilians object one.

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

All of the convicted are now still emancipated as they have appealed to a higher court.

sum of two units other high-ranking army officers are also being tried from the same tribunal.

Now-retired Gen Wiranto, who many possess ultimately responsible for the bloodshed and destruction in East Timor since he commanded Indonesia's armed forces at the time, has not been called before the tribunal to face judgment

Wiranto has denied allegations that the military was involved in the violence, and has repeatedly appeared as a defense witness in the trials of police and military officers.

Militia disposes armed and supported by the Indonesian military began escalating violence and intimidation against pro-independence East Timorese in April 1999 ahead of a U.N.-organized independence referendum in succession Aug. 30 that year.

After the issue was announced on Sept. 4 1999 the military and militia arranges launched a campaign of violence and destruction across the former Portuguese colony that was invaded according to Indonesia in 1975.

East Timor became independent May 20 last year.

COPYRIGHT 2003 Kyodo of recent origins International, Inc.

COPYRIGHT 2003 Gale Group