Jakarta – A former pro-Indonesia militia member in East Timor has been jailed for 10 B1/2 years for crimes against humanity including one count of murder, East Timor's serious crimes unit said on Monday.

A special judicial panel also found Domingos Mendonca guilty of persecution of independence supporters in the period between April and September 1999, the year tiny East Timor voted to break away from Indonesian rule. The trial was the fourth and final one related to incidents in the Same sub-district, the serious crimes unit said. In the earlier verdicts one ex-militia man received a 12-year sentence, one of nearly nine, and the other eight.

According to the United Nations, about 1,000 people were killed before and after the UN-supervised vote in August 1999, in which the people of the former Portuguese colony voted overwhelmingly in favour of independence.

Pro-Jakarta militias, with support from sections of the Indonesian military, were blamed for most of the violence.

The serious crimes unit has indicted a total of 367 persons since 2000, of whom 280 were outside East Timor's jurisdiction.

Most are believed to be at large in Indonesia, which has thus far refused to send those accused by East Timor courts of human rights violations to Dili to face charges.

East Timorese law does not allow individuals to be tried in absentia.

Indonesian officials have said there is no agreement that permits extradition to East Timor on such charges, and note that Indonesia has in any case set up courts of its own to deal with human rights accusations over East Timor.

But rights groups have criticised the Indonesian tribunals for considering charges against less than 20 people, and convicting only a handful of those.

East Timor, which became independent in 2002 after a transition period under UN administration, has thus far convicted 36 of those it has accused.