Received from Joyo Indonesian News

Indonesia Prosecutors Want 12Yrs For Timor Murder Suspect

JAKARTA, Feb. 14 (AP) -- Indonesian prosecutors Thursday demanded a 12-year prison sentence for an East Timorese militiaman who allegedly murdered a U.N. peacekeeper from New Zealand two years ago.

Prosecutor Muhammad Syafei told the Central Jakarta Court that Yacobus Bere shot to death Pvt. Leonard Manning during a militia attack in the jungles close to the border between East Timor and the Indonesian province of West Timor, on July 24, 2000. Bere, along with six other men, then mutilated Manning's body, Safei said.

Judge I Nengah Suriada adjourned the trial, which opened four months ago, until next week.

Bere has publicly admitted to killing Manning, who was serving with a U.N. force dispatched to East Timor to restore order after pro-Indonesian militiamen ravaged the territory after the independence ballot in September 1999.

Bere, along with about 100,000 refugees, fled to neighboring West Timor when peacekeepers arrived.

Last year, six militiaman were convicted of the murders of three U.N. aid workers in West Timor. They were initially sentenced to between 10 and 20 months in jail by a Jakarta court.

However, after the international community and the U.N. expressed outrage, the high court increased their sentences to between five and seven years imprisonment.

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