Jill Jolliffe, Dili – The sentencing of their former governor, Abilio Soares, to three years in prison for failing to stop the 1999 violence drew a mixed response from the people of East Timor yesterday.

East Timor's Foreign Minister Jose Ramos Horta expressed fears that only East Timorese, such as Soares, would be punished for the violence.

"To me, it is not whether the verdict is fair or not," Mr Ramos Horta said. "I only wonder whether the East Timor people are going to be paying for the sins of the Indonesians." He said there were "extenuating circumstances", citing cases when Soares saved lives and protected people. "Also, anyone who knows the situation knows that no Timorese official had power over the security forces." President Xanana Gusmao has appealed for clemency, but other East Timorese thought Soares' sentence was inadequate.

Joaquim Fonseca of Yayasan Hak, East Timor's leading human rights body, said: "Three years is nothing for a person who held high responsibility within the Indonesian framework. He should have been charged with more than failing to stop atrocities. We have evidence that he organised the money to finance the militias."