[In East Timor a tribunal has passed judgement on one of the most notorious militia leaders involved in the violence in the fledgling country three years ago. Eurico Guterres got a ten year jail sentence for crimes against humanity but all along the process has been widely condemned as flawed.]

Transcript:

Linda Mottram: Mr Downer has just returned from a visit to East Timor where, at the same time, a tribunal has passed judgement on one of the most notorious militia leaders involved in the violence in the fledgling country three years ago.

But critics are questioning whether its justice.

Eurico Guterres got a ten year jail sentence for crimes against humanity but all along the process has been widely condemned as flawed.

South-East Asia correspondent Peter Lloyd was at the Guterres hearing.

Peter Lloyd: The military fatigues were gone and so were the friends and supporters.

Eurico Guterres cut a lonely but defiant figure as he arrived to face his day of judgement, declaring he had no regrets.

"I am sure and believe that what I did in East Timor was to defend Indonesia", he told reporters.

When the Indonesians first carried out their investigation into the violence in East Timor they concluded that top military officers, including former armed forces chief General Wiranto, should stand trial.

Instead a Human Rights Tribunal was established and the six military officers who have faced it so far have all been acquitted. The only convictions have been of the East Timorese Provincial Governor at the time and now Eurico Guterres.

Sidney Jones is the Indonesia Director if the International Crisis Group.

Sidney Jones: There was nothing in the verdict that suggested that the militia led by Eurico Guterres was created, funded, equipped and so on by the Indonesian military. The whole State role in the violence in East Timor has dropped off the picture.

Peter Lloyd: It's long been argued that the Human Rights Tribunal was fatally flawed by its narrow focus, in the case of Eurico Guterres a conviction for not preventing his men carrying out one massacre among so many.

Sidney Jones: You weren't able to put together the full picture and paint the kind of Indonesian State involvement that would have been necessary to really prove a case of crimes against humanity.

So you focus on a specific attack on a specific house on a specific day and you're basically reverting to a completely ordinary crime, not something that gets at this really huge pattern of violence that took place.

Peter Lloyd: More senior military officer are due to face the tribunal but confidence in the outcome is low.

Sidney Jones believes Governments that once cared so much about justice in East Timor will be indifferent to the issue now that Indonesia's support for fighting terrorism is a higher priority.

Sidney Jones: My guess is that when news of this verdict reaches capitals across the world, including in Europe, Washington and a number of other places, there is effectively going to be a collective shrugging of the shoulders.

This is not an issue now. It is not a priority.

Peter Lloyd: For his part, Eurico Guterres will remain a free man while he appeals. He says he may even write a book.

In Jakarta this is Peter Lloyd for AM.