An Indonesian court has sentenced six men to light jail terms over the brutal killings of three foreign U.N. workers in West Timor.
The six were jailed for 10-20 months but had faced up to 34 years in prison over the slayings, which occurred during a rampage by pro-Jakarta East Timorese militias in the West Timor border town of Atambua last September.
The three United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) workers, from the United States, Croatia and Ethiopia, were stabbed to death and their bodies dragged into a street and burned, triggering the evacuation of hundreds of U.N. and other aid workers from West Timor.
It was one of the bloodiest attacks ever on U.N. civilian personnel.
All six East Timorese men, who consider themselves Indonesian, were convicted of violence against people and property, as opposed to murder, court officials said.
"The elements that caused the U.N. officers' deaths cannot be proved to be (linked to the defendants)... because the action was perpetrated by a mob," Judge Anak Agung Gede Dalem told the North Jakarta court when sentencing three of the men.
Three others were convicted earlier in the day by the same court.
"It has been legally and definitely proved the accused... did the brutal act in public against people that resulted in death," the judge told the earlier hearing.
The defendants will have their sentences cut by the time served in detention since October.
The killings drew widespread condemnation of Indonesia, including threats to withhold much-needed aid. Last week, foreign donors again pressed Jakarta over the case.
More than 100,000 East Timorese refugees remain in squalid camps in Indonesian West Timor, where they were herded by the pro-Jakarta militia who razed the neighboring territory after it voted in August 1999 to end Indonesia's often brutal rule.
The three United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) workers, from the United States, Croatia and Ethiopia, were stabbed to death and their bodies dragged into a street and burned, triggering the evacuation of hundreds of U.N. and other aid workers from West Timor.
It was one of the bloodiest attacks ever on U.N. civilian personnel.
All six East Timorese men, who consider themselves Indonesian, were convicted of violence against people and property, as opposed to murder, court officials said.
"The elements that caused the U.N. officers' deaths cannot be proved to be (linked to the defendants)... because the action was perpetrated by a mob," Judge Anak Agung Gede Dalem told the North Jakarta court when sentencing three of the men.
Three others were convicted earlier in the day by the same court.
"It has been legally and definitely proved the accused... did the brutal act in public against people that resulted in death," the judge told the earlier hearing.
The defendants will have their sentences cut by the time served in detention since October.
The killings drew widespread condemnation of Indonesia, including threats to withhold much-needed aid. Last week, foreign donors again pressed Jakarta over the case.
More than 100,000 East Timorese refugees remain in squalid camps in Indonesian West Timor, where they were herded by the pro-Jakarta militia who razed the neighboring territory after it voted in August 1999 to end Indonesia's often brutal rule.