Reporter: Anne Barker

Mark Colvin: A court in East Timor has jailed a former pro-Indonesia militia leader to 15 years jail for murder and crimes against humanity.

Marculino Soares led an attack on the house of the independence leader Manuel Carrascalao in April 1999, when at least 12 people were butchered. Soares is one of about 70 people now convicted over the violence and murders before and after East Timor voted for independence. And as Anne Barker reports, his case has renewed calls for an international tribunal on the cases of hundreds more.

Anne Barker: April the 17th, 1999, will forever be known as the day of one of the most gruesome massacres in East Timor's history. Members of the notorious militia group, Besi Merah Putih, or red and white iron, stormed the home of the prominent independence leader Manuel Carrascalao, and killed at least 12 people taking refuge at the back, including Carrascalao's 17-year-old son Manelito.

Their bodies were tortured and mutilated and dumped in a well-shaft. Carrascalao's daughter, Christiana, was around the corner at the time, and believes in reality many more people were killed.

Christiana Carrascalao: There were about at least 150 were refugees and my brother and all his friends were all there at the home, and only 45 survived. Only 13 bodies, 12 bodies were returned, reportedly been killed at the house, where are the others? We didn't know until today.

Anne Barker: Marculino Soares has been in custody for nearly two years, since he was charged with murder and other crimes against humanity. A judge at East Timor's special panel for serious crimes in handing down sentence this week said it was Soares who ordered militia members to attend an independence rally in Dili, from where the attack was launched. And he found proof that Soares had personally taken part.

But the Deputy General prosecutor at East Timor's serious crimes unit, Nicholas Koumjian, says the real ringleaders, including the notorious militia leader Eurico Guterres, have managed to escape justice.

Nicholas Koumjian: Those who, in the security apparatus, who knew the attack was about to take place and took no action, I think their responsibility and certainly the individual perpetrators who played a significant role in killing and with machetes and other instruments the victims should also bear significantly responsibility.

Anne Barker: Marculino Soares is one of 73 people who've now been convicted over the violence that paved East Timor's path to independence. But of the 369 people charged, only one in four have made it to trial. The vast majority are in Indonesia and out of reach of prosecutors. Nicholas Koumjian admits it's a source of constant despair.

Nicholas Koumjian: It is frustrating that there are people who are outside of East Timor, but what frustrates me the most is that those at the highest level of command and who are most responsible for organising the violence remain outside of the reach of the serious crimes process.

Anne Barker: The United Nations Security Council recently admitted the judicial processes it set up haven't brought justice for the East Timorese. And it's still considering calls for an international tribunal to bring those who led the violence to account. Christiana Carrascalao is one of those who support the international model.

Christiana Carrascalao: An international tribunal should be set because the magnitude of the crime that was committed in East Timor was too big, way too big for anyone to just live a life and move on quietly.

Mark Colvin: Christiana Carrascalao, talking to Anne Barker.