Joanne Collins, Jakarta – Indonesia is due to deliver on Wednesday its first verdict in landmark trials over violence linked to East Timor's bloody independence vote in 1999, but many who have followed the process doubt justice will be served.

The trials were branded a farce by some leading human rights groups and East Timorese even before they began five months ago, mainly because the authorities did not declare Indonesia's military chief at the time of the carnage a suspect.

But the absence of General Wiranto from the dock has become less of a talking point as the trials have progressed.

"In some ways the process has been so bad that it almost would be better if there hadn't been trials at all," said Jakarta-based human rights expert Sidney Jones.

"There is no question that the biggest flaw is the unwillingness of prosecutors to treat these cases as real cases of crimes against humanity," said Jones, Indonesia project direct for the International Crisis Group think-tank.

Responding to various criticisms, Chuck Suryo Sumpeno, head of the attorney-general's media unit, said: "It's alright for them to have these opinions but the prosecutors have considered many factors in making their charges. They have stuck by the legal principle of non-bias."

The first verdict due to be handed down is for East Timor's former governor Abilio Soares, who is charged with failing to halt the orgy of violence before and after the ballot in which East Timor overwhelmingly voted to split from Indonesia.

Prosecutors have demanded a 10 1/2-year jail term for Soares who has denied any wrongdoing and called his trial a sham. The charge carries a maximum penalty of death.

Soares is among 18 suspects being tried over the bloodshed, in which the United Nations estimates more than 1,000 people were killed by machete-wielding militiamen with military backing.

International outrage?

Indonesia is under intense pressure to punish those responsible for the mayhem. The US ambassador to Indonesia last week said that the United States and the rest of the world were closely watching the trials and the result would help determine whether full US-Indonesia military ties would be restored.

The United States largely cut military ties with Jakarta following the wave of violence by pro-Jakarta militiamen and has said Indonesia must account for what happened in East Timor.

But Jones said there was little the international community could do if the punishment did not reflect the crime. "There are very few responses the international community can make now except to indicate through statements that this was not a satisfactory process," she said.

An international tribunal like those for some officials of former Yugoslavia and Rwanda were out of the question for a variety of reasons, Jones said. "It's not going to happen in terms of not wanting to disturb Indonesia at a time when it's just come through with major democratic reforms."

'A good beginning'

Catholic priest Father Jovito, vice chair of East Timor's Truth and Reconciliation Commission, made a plea to members of the international community to express outrage rather than seek to protect their own interests.

"Human rights are human rights. Don't mix it with politics and economics," he told Reuters by telephone from the East Timor capital of Dili.

Speaking at a news conference in Malaysia, East Timor Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri said he thought the Indonesian efforts were "a good beginning of the whole process," but hoped not only ethnic Timorese were going to be condemned but also Indonesians. "Some parties in government have to be put in the court to be charged," he added.

H S Dillon, an outgoing member of Indonesia's human rights commission, said he did not expect any of the defendants to be handed harsh sentences. He said the judges were in a predicament because the prosecution had presented them with weak cases, but added that the prosecution also faced a dilemma.

"When you are a prosecutor, why would you really want to prosecute the army generals? The only thing you might get is a bullet in your head," said Dillon, part of the first team of Indonesian investigators to visit East Timor after the bloodshed.