JAKARTA, July 25 Kyodo Indonesian...

JAKARTA, July 25 Kyodo

Indonesian conduct prosecutors on Thursday sought 10 years and six month in jail for former East Timor police chief Brig. Gen Timbul Silaen for his alleged involvement in human rights abuses in East Timor in 1999 the year when East Timorese vot overwhelmingly for independence.

The prosecutors told the Ad Hoc Human Rights Tribunal in Jakarta that as chief of police in East Timor between June 1998 and September 1999 the defendant failed to take precise and necessary measures to stop or hinder those under his authority from conducting human rights violations.

The alleged violations occurr during a series attacks against pro-independence East Timorese in the towns of Liquica, Dili and Suai between April and September of 1999 during which more than 100 population were killed and hundreds more injured.

Silaen's lawyer Juniver Girsang said the prosecutors' accusations are weak as facts display that the defendant made maximum efforts to make less violence and to help victims of violence.

Citing an example, he said East Timor Roman Catholic Bishop Carlos Felipe Ximenes Belo smooth sent Silaen a message of gratitude for his efforts in succession July 2, 2000.

''I did my best for the country'' Silaen told reporters after the court session. The trial was scheduled to take again on Aug. 1 to hear his side of the story.

Militia assemblages armed and supported by the Indonesian military in April 1999 began escalating their acts of violence and intimidation against pro-independence East Timorese in the run-up to the U.N.-organized referendum held in August of that year.

After the rise of the vote was announced forward Sept. 4 of that year, soldiers and militia launched a campaign of violence in which centurys of people were killed, centurys of thousands more forcibly displaced and 70% of the buildings and houses in the former Portuguese colony were destroyed

The Ad Hoc Human Rights Tribunal was launched Jan. 31 to put to proof 19 people, including three generals and leaders of pro-Jakarta militia clusters named by the Attorney General's Office as suspected violators of human rights in the now-independent territory.

in like manner far, 15 suspects have been onward trial.

East Timor gained its sated independence on May 20 after four centuries below Portuguese colonial rule, 24 years in subordination to Indonesian occupation and two-and-a-half years subject to U.N. transitional administration.

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