Jakarta – An Indonesian court has been asked to sentence 14 East Timorese to one year in jail for taking part in an anti-Indonesia protest during a visit by a U.N. envoy in March, the official Antara news agency reported on Wednesday.

Government prosecutors urged the Dili State Court in the East Timor capital to jail the defendants for separatist activities, by protesting outside a hotel where U.N. special envoy Jamsheed Marker was staying.

A total of 33 East Timorese youths were arrested during the protest. On Tuesday, prosecutors asked the same court to sentence 19 East Timorese to one year in jail each on the same charges. Antara gave no further details.

Residents said demonstrators tried to meet Marker over frustrations that he was to see only government officials and Nobel Peace laureate Bishop Carlos Belo during his three-day visit to the territory.

Indonesia invaded East Timor, a former Portuguese colony, in 1975 and annexed it the following year in a move not recognised by the United Nations.

Armed guerrillas in the hills of East Timor and a clandestine movement in urban areas still oppose Jakarta's rule.

On Monday Indonesia dismissed a proposal from a rebel leader to give East Timor a relationship with Jakarta similar to that which Puerto Rico enjoys with the United States.

Puerto Rico has almost total autonomy in its affairs with just foreign relations and defence the province of the U.S. government.