The acquittal of six members of Indonesia's security forces on charges arising from the horrific massacre of three East Timorese priests and the scores of civilians they were sheltering implies, incorrectly, a credible defence. Instead, the six walked free because the prosecution failed to prove its case through weak, incomplete arguments and a paucity of witnesses and other evidence. As such, the trial delivered neither truth nor justice and makes a mockery of the Indonesian Government's pledge to punish those responsible for the 1999 carnage in East Timor.

Under international law a sovereign nation must be given the opportunity to try its own citizens before charges of crimes against humanity can be referred to the recently convened International Criminal Court at The Hague.

Human rights abuses in the former East Timor have not been referred to an international tribunal, specifically to give Jakarta a chance to demonstrate accountability and meaningful reforms within the most notorious units of its armed forces. Fifteen verdicts are yet to be handed down in cases arising from the violence which wrecked East Timor's infrastructure and killed at least 1000 people after the United Nations-sponsored referendum of September 1999 which overwhelming rejected Indonesian rule. Yet, the acquittal last week of the "Suai five" and their superior officer will thoroughly discredit Indonesia's specially convened human rights court. The sole guilty verdict to date has been brought down against the only East Timorese defendant, former governor Abilio Soares, who claims he is a scapegoat. Such uneven justice will revive pressure for international human rights trials, in spite of the jurisdictional and practical challenges.

Indonesia's own investigators last year recounted a terrible chain of events in which Indonesian police and soldiers directed the slaughter inside the Suai church grounds, beginning with the shooting and hacking to death of three Catholic priests who had tried to shield their parishioners. An Indonesian officer supervised the disposal of scores of bodies, some of children as young as five. Indonesian investigators listed 32 individuals as responsible for numerous "grave human rights abuses" across East Timor, many committed by the local militia units they armed and controlled. Politically, the Indonesian Government has little to gain by parading members of the powerful armed forced through the courts. The Indonesian public strongly supported the occupation of East Timor and consider the trials a national humiliation.

Internationally, however, Indonesia's armed forces have been largely isolated since the Timor rampage, with the resumption of military ties with the West conditional on credible trials. Yet the United States recently announced $US50 million in new military aid to Jakarta. Washington now needs to enlist the Indonesian armed forces in the "war on terrorism", fearing links between Islamic groups in Indonesia and the al-Qaeda network. Unfortunately, it appears justice for the East Timorese is now at risk of being sidelined by the new strategic agenda of the US.