JAKARTA -- Five Indonesian military and police officers facing 10-year jail terms if convicted of gross rights violations in East Timor denied on Tuesday they shut their eyes to a massacre in 1999 of independence supporters.

The officers each read statements to Indonesia's human rights court, hearing cases of atrocities around East Timor's vote in 1999 to become independent from Indonesia, AFP reported.

Their lawyers were later due to present a defense plea.

The prosecutors have said the defendants were not guilty of ordering violence but of allowing violence to take place at the Ave Maria Church complex in Suai in Covalima district on September 6, 1999.

They have demanded jail terms of between 10 and 10 and a half years for the men.

Twenty-seven people, including three priests, were killed after pro-Indonesian local militias attacked the church, which was packed with independence supporters who had taken refuge there from the militia rampage.

All five of the officers said they had done their duty.

"I did not know of and did not hear of it previously, that an attack was going to be launched on the Suai church," said the then-Covalima district chief, Colonel Herman Sedyono. "We knew of the incident only after we heard the first shots fired and that the clash had already taken place."

Sedyono said only he, a secretary and a driver were left of the district administration. All others had fled with their families following the violence sparked by an announcement two days earlier that East Timorese had voted overwhelmingly for independence from Indonesia.

"I had to face the incident alone," said Sedyono. Colonel Liliek Kushardianto said the charges did not reflect the situation on the ground "because the situation at the time had already turned chaotic while our remaining forces in the field were only down to five percent." Kushardianto, the then-Suai military commander, also questioned why the UN administration in East Timor (UNAMET) was not asked to account for the violence because "whatever the district command did, it was also under the command of UNAMET, or at least was done with the knowledge of UNAMET."

Under an agreement between the United Nations, Portugal and Indonesia on the holding of the ballot in East Timor, troop movements or deployments had to be notified to UNAMET.

The three other defendants are Lieutenant Colonel Gatot Subiaktoro, the then-Suai police chief; Lieutenant Sugito, the former Suai town military commander; and Captain Ahmad Syamsudin, a former official at the Suai military command.

They are among 18 soldiers, policemen or civilians now facing trial at the rights court for crimes against humanity in the territory. No verdicts have yet been announced.

The militias, created and supported by Indonesian military elements, waged a campaign of intimidation before the independence vote on August 30, 1999 and a revenge campaign afterwards.

At least 1,000 East Timorese are estimated to have died and whole towns were burnt to the ground.

Indonesia set up the court to deflect pressure for a UN tribunal into the violence. It is being closely watched by the world for proof that Jakarta will punish those behind the violence.