The United States Senate approved Thursday a resolution condemning the "disproportionate" sentences an Indonesian court recently applied to the self-confessed killers of three UN aid workers.

The three employees of the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), who had been involved in efforts to repatriate East Timorese refugees, were killed last September in Atambua, a border town in Indonesia's western half of Timor island.

The Senate resolution, approved by consensus, notes that one of the victims was a US citizen. It also urges Jakarta to indict and bring to trial the high-ranking Indonesian commanders described in a government statement of 1 September 2000 as being suspects in the mass killings that followed the August 1999 independence referendum in East Timor.

The text also indicates that representatives of the US Department of State should use all meetings with Indonesian counterparts to "underscore the importance of putting an end to the climate of impunity that protects these individuals".