Jakarta – Indonesian prosecutors yesterday demanded that a former military chief in East Timor be jailed for 10 years for failing to stop violence leading up to the territory's vote to split from Jakarta's rule in 1999.

Brig-Gen Tono Suratman controlled Indonesian troops in East Timor, now known as Timor Leste, until two weeks before the August 30, 1999, independence vote.

Chief prosecutor Gabrille Simangunsong said that Suratman had "clearly and convincingly failed to prevent or control" a mass rally by militia groups in Dili on April 17 that year. The rally prompted an attack on the house of Manuel Carrascalao in Dili which killed at least 12 people, including Mr Carrascalao's 16-year-old son.

Suratman, a member of the army elite Kopassus special forces, also failed to prevent the attack on a refugee-packed church in Liquica on April 6 by soldiers and pro-Jakarta militiamen in which 22 people died, Mr Simangunsong said.

"The defendant knew that the situation in East Timor was grave ... he should not have given permission for the rally to take place," he told the rights court.

Suratman's next hearing is scheduled for April 23. The judges are not obliged to follow the sentence recommendation if they find him guilty. The charge carries a maximum penalty of death. Suratman has denied any wrongdoing.

Indonesia, under international pressure to account for the bloodshed, set up the rights court to hear cases against 18 defendants.

Pro-Jakarta militia groups, with backing from elements within the Indonesian military, carried out a campaign of intimidation before the poll and then rampaged when it showed East Timorese had voted to break away. The United Nations estimates 1,000 people were killed before and after the vote.

Suratman is among the last two of 18 suspects to face trial. Maj-Gen Adam Damiri, the last defendant on trial, is the highest ranking suspect and was regional military chief at the time.