Indonesian soldier convicted over Timor

Lt Col Soejarwo has appealed against the verdict

A senior Indonesian military commander has been sentenced to five years in prison for human rights violations committed in East Timor in 1999.

Lt Col Soejarwo, who was military commander in the East Timorese capital Dili, is the first Indonesian security official to be found guilty by a special Jakarta court.

I feel like I'm being sacrificed. I did the best I could to provide security

Lt Col Soejarwo

He was found guilty of failing to prevent pro-Jakarta militias from staging two attacks in September 1999, in which at least 15 people were killed.

The Jakarta court was set up because of international pressure on Indonesia to tackle human rights abuses committed as it withdrew from East Timor.

The court has been criticised because 10 of the 18 defendants have already been acquitted.

The BBC's Jakarta correspondent, Rachel Harvey, says Friday's verdict marks a significant departure from what was becoming a disturbing pattern.

Flaw

Before the verdict on Lt Col Soejarwo was handed down, only two defendants had been found guilty, both of them ethnic Timorese.

One of these, the notorious pro-Jakarta militia leader Eurico Guterres, was sentenced to 10 years in jail in November.

At least 1,000 people were killed before, during and after East Timor's overwhelming vote, in August 1999, to break away from 24 years of Indonesian rule.

Rights experts have noted that a key flaw of Jakarta's human rights court is its failure to try top officers, including the presiding commander at the time of the violence, General Wiranto.

The panel of five judges hearing his case saud he was guilty of failing to prevent pro-Jakarta militias from attacking the office and home of Roman Catholic Bishop Carlos Ximenes Belo in September 1999, just days after the vote.

Lt Col Soejarwo said he would appeal against the verdict.

"I reject the verdict. This trial is not fair. I feel like I'm being sacrificed. I did the best I could to provide security," he said.