Indonesian prosecutors indicted seven senior officials including the ex-governor of East Timor for crimes including genocide in the territory in 1999.

"They will be accused of violations of the human rights law of 2000 and could face between 10 years in jail and death," attorney general's office spokesman Barman Zahir told reporters Thursday as the case files were handed over at Central Jakarta district court.

Among those indicted are former governor Abilio Jose Osorio Soares; former East Timor police chief Timbul Silaen; and the official who formerly headed the Covalima district, Herman Sedyono.

Four of Sedyono's accomplices would also be tried with him in the same case. They were identified as Liliek Kushadianto, Sugito and Achmad Syamsuddin – three officers from the military command in Suai – and Gatot Subiaktoro from the police in Suai.

Zahir said the indictments allege genocide, gross human rights violations and violations of command responsibilities, but did not specify what each official is accused of. The files cover three cases.

Indonesia, under pressure to bring offenders in East Timor to justice, last month set up a special human rights court to try cases. It has named 18 defendants, including three army generals, a police general and several middle-ranking officers. Zahir said indictments in only three of 12 cases were handed over Thursday and the rest would follow soon.

In the months surrounding East Timor's vote for independence from Indonesia in August 1999, pro-Jakarta militias backed by the Indonesian military went on a bloody rampage. They killed hundreds of people, burned towns to the ground, destroyed 80 percent of the former Portuguese territory's infrastructure and forced or led more than a quarter of a million villagers into Indonesian-ruled West Timor.

Files on the 18 Timor suspects will detail crimes committed during two months, April and September, and will include the massacre of refugees.

The United States has refused to resume full military ties with Jakarta until offenders in East Timor are brought to justice.

The then-defence minister and armed forces chief General Wiranto is not among the 18 defendants despite suggestions by human rights groups that he was morally responsible for the bloodshed.