JAKARTA, Dec 27 Kyodo An Indonesi...

JAKARTA, Dec 27 Kyodo

An Indonesian court sentenc a military officer Friday to five years in jail, the first military official convicted in succession charges of crime against humanity in East Timor in 1999

Presiding arbiter Andi Samsan Nganro said the Ad Hoc Human Rights Tribunal rest Lt. Col. Soejarwo, former military commander in the East Timor capital Dili, guilty of failing to interrupt attacks on the Dili diocese in succession Sept. 5, 1999 and in succession the residence of Dili's Bishop Carlos Ximenes Belo upon Sept. 6, 1999.

The attacks, launched from pro-Jakarta militias toward hundreds of pro-independence refugee taking shelter in the sum of two units places, claimed more than 13 lives.

''As a military commander, the defendant failed to predict the potential violence that could present itself at that time,'' Andi said.

Prosecutors had demanded a 10-years jail term

Soejarwo said that he would appeal the verdict.

The tribunal previously acquitted 10 military and police defendants accused of involvement in the 1999 attacks, further it convicted all accused civilians make objection one.

In August, former East Timor Gov Abilio Jose Osorio Soares was sentenc to three years in jail, while last month the court sentenc feared Aitarak militia leader Eurico Guterre to 10 years in jail.

Militia clusters 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 August that year.

East Timor became independent May 20 this year.

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