Don Greenlees, Jakarta – Indonesia's Human Rights Court acquitted three army and police officers yesterday over charges of human rights crimes in East Timor – maintaining its unbroken record of refusing to convict senior security force personnel.

Only two days after handing down the stiffest penalty so far in the East Timor trials against deputy militia commander Eurico Guterres, the court dismissed charges that two lieutenant-colonels from the army and one from the police had failed in their command responsibilities by allowing two massacres to occur.

The court, set up in response to international pressure for justice over the crimes in East Timor in 1999, has acquitted nine police and army officers. Yesterday's verdicts mean acquittals are certain in outstanding cases against two generals and one full colonel – the most senior officers to go on trial.

In the first of the two verdicts yesterday, the court freed former Dili military commander Lieutenant-Colonel Endar Priyanto on charges he failed to intervene to prevent a massacre of at least 12 people in the Dili home of independence figure Manuel Carrascalao on April 17, 1999.

Hours later, the court acquitted the former Liquica military commander Lieutenant-Colonel Asep Kuswandi, former police commander Lieutenant-Colonel Adios Salova and former mayor Leoneto Martins of the same offence in connection with a massacre of up to 60 people in the Liquica church on April 6, 1999. Prosecutors put the death toll at 22.

The verdicts, rejecting requests from prosecutors for 10-year jail terms, confirm anxieties among human rights groups that the court is prepared to deliver convictions only in softer cases against militiamen and former provincial administration officials.

In the toughest penalty to date, Guterres, the commander of the Dili- based Aitarak militia and deputy commander of all militia forces, was sentenced to 10 years' jail on Wednesday for inciting the massacre at the home of Carrascalao. Guterres remains free while he appeals.

Although the case against Lieutenant-Colonel Priyanto was also tied to the Carrascalao massacre, chief judge Amril dismissed the case on the grounds there was conflicting testimony over whether soldiers were present. He pointed to one witness claim that soldiers in the crowd came from the Maubara area, 45km west of Dili, and witness claims denying soldiers were involved.

In the Liquica case, chief judge Sutiarso said the massacre was carried out by the Besi Merah Putih militia, but maintained there was no link proved to the defendants.

Witness accounts and independent investigations have established a clear link between the massacre in both places and security forces.

Witnesses in Liquica said they were ordered by soldiers and police to dispose of bodies. On the weekend of the Carrascalao massacre, militiamen and out-of-uniform soldiers and police killed at least 20 people in Dili, observed by scores of people, including journalists.

Troops in Dili under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Priyanto, a member of the Kopassus special forces, were seen fraternising with the assailants.