The defendants, who appeared in eight separate trials at the West Jakarta District Court, are among more than 100 suspects who have been rounded up or killed after the discovery of a new terror cell in February.

Prosecutors said the defendants set up a military training camp in Aceh to prepare to fight “infidels.”

“Their targets were foreign workers,” said Feritas, who represents the state in several of the cases. He said the men believed relief workers who poured into the region after the 2004 tsunami were guilty of proselytizing.

“They also think Americans, Britons and Australians support and help Israel kill Muslims in many countries,” he said.

All of the defendants, who have not yet entered pleas, are accused of violating the anti-terror law, for which they can face up to 20 years in jail.

Oman Rochman, a 38-year-old defendant, said they committed no crime with the training.

“It was not intended for any action at home,” he told reporters after the hearing. “We were preparing ourselves to defend our Palestinian brothers, and that is our obligation as Muslims.”

Indonesia, a secular nation with the world’s largest population of Muslims, has been hit by a string of terror attacks in recent years blamed on al-Qaida-linked militants. Most people in the country of 237 million practice a moderate form of the faith, but Aceh is known for its strict enforcement of Islamic values.

That was one of the reasons the province was chosen as a base for the new cell named “al-Qaida in Aceh,” terror experts say. The cell reportedly consists of militants from several different regional terror networks, including Jemaah Islamiyah.

Feritas, who like many Indonesians uses only one name, said the suspects planned to kill aid workers and attack churches, U.N. offices and all other Western symbols.

One of the men facing trial is accused of shooting and injuring Erhard Bauer, a German Red Cross worker, in Aceh last year. He is also accused of throwing grenades at a U.N. Children’s Fund office. No one was injured in that attack.

Indonesia straddles a series of fault lines that make the vast island nation prone to volcanic and seismic activity. The giant quake that triggered the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami killed 230,000 people, half of them in Aceh. — AP

BEKASI, Indonesia – Tired of government inaction, Christians and other religious minorities in Indonesia are pushing back against rising violence by Islamic hard-liners.

For months, Christians in the industrial city of Bekasi have been warned against worshipping on a field that houses their shuttered church. They’ve arrived to find human feces dumped on the land and sermons have been interrupted by demonstrators chanting “Infidels!” and “Leave now!”

But last week, tensions finally exploded.

Twenty worshippers were met by 300 Islamic hard-liners, many of whom hurled shoes and water bottles before pushing past a row of riot police. The mob chased down and punched several members of the group.

“The constitution guarantees our right to practice our religion!” Yudi Pasaribu of the Batak Christian Protestant Church said, vowing to return every Sunday until their request for a place of worship, made more than two years ago, is approved.

“And we want to do that on our own property, in our own church.”

Indonesia, a secular country of 237 million people, has more Muslims than any other in the world. Though it has a long history of religious tolerance, a small extremist fringe has become more vocal in recent years.

Hard-liners have also become more violent, according to the Setara Institute for Peace and Democracy, a human rights group, which said there have already been 28 attacks on religious freedom in 2010, including everything from preventing groups from performing prayers to burning houses of worship.

The institute said there were 18 such incidents in all of 2009 and 17 in 2008.

Though most Indonesians are moderate and oppose violence, critics say President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s government has been slow to intervene because it relies heavily on the support of Islamic parties in parliament.

Acting on the orders of local officials, police helped hard-liners forcibly close several mosques owned by Ahmadiyah, an Islamic sect they call “deviant,” last month in Manis Lor, a village in West Java province.

But members of the sect, who differ from other Muslims about whether Muhammad was the “final” monotheist prophet, have so far refused to buck under.

“We’re tired of being harassed and attacked,” said Yati Hidayat, a 48-year-old Ahmadiyah member. “We have the right to pray just like any other religious community. If anyone tries to stop us, we’re ready to fight.”

Recent attacks have largely been led by the Islamic Defenders Front, or the FPI, which is pushing for the implementation of Islamic-based laws in regions across the nation.

They are known for smashing bars, attacking transvestites and going after those considered blasphemous with bamboo clubs and stones. Perpetrators are rarely punished or even questioned by police.

Yudhoyono has in recent days urged his countrymen to be tolerant of others, especially during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan. But he has made no direct reference to attacks making headlines in Bekasi, just 25 miles (40 kilometers) from the capital, or Manis Lor, 180 miles (300 kilometers) farther east.

Hundreds of people held an interfaith rally in Jakarta over the weekend demanding the government take a tougher line.

“Those attackers have to be arrested, otherwise they will feel their actions are right,” said Saur Siagain, a rally organizer, standing in front of a banner that said: “The president has to be responsible in guaranteeing freedom of religion.”

Minority groups, who represent less than 15 percent of the population, have long tried to keep a low profile.

Though thousands of churches dot the countryside, groups complain that getting permits to build new ones can be nearly impossible. Construction is often put on hold for years as local authorities weigh the risks of angering hard-liners.

In the meantime, some congregations have held services in apartments, office buildings and even shopping malls.

But as attacks become more frequent and more brutal, religious minorities — together with moderate Muslims — appear to be losing patience.

“The Batak Christian Protestant Church and Ahmadiyah were around long before FPI,” said Hilmar Farid from Indonesia’s Social History Institute. “They are getting tired of being intimidated.”

In a rare show of force, hundreds of police showed up to protect the Batak Christians on Aug. 8. But they made little effort to stop FPI members as they got increasingly vitriolic.

“The Batak Christians deserve to be stabbed to death,” yelled Murhali Barda, who heads the FPI chapter in Bekasi. “If they refuse to go home we are ready to fight.”

An argument broke out between Barda and three female members of the congregation. The hard-liners shoved and started punching them. All the while, men chanted from a truck and clerics made speeches saying “Leave. … We will not let you perform prayers here!”

The crowd, made up largely of children, cheered in response: “God is great!” — AP

Abu Bakar Bashir was arrested Monday for allegedly setting up a terror cell and militant training camp in Aceh province that was plotting high-profile assassinations and bloody attacks on foreigners in the capital.

Investigators compiled a strong case against the fiery 71-year-old cleric by monitoring his bank records, tapping phones and compiling confessions from other suspected militants, said Lt. Gen. Ito Sumardi, chief detective for the national police.

“He has been officially detained and charged with violating the anti-terrorism law,” he told reporters, adding that Bashir, who has always denied terrorist links, has so far refused to cooperate with authorities.

He will not answer any questions or sign any documents.

Indonesia has been hit by a string of suicide bombings blamed on Jemaah Islamiyah, an al-Qaida-linked network, since 2002 when militants attacked two packed nightclubs on the resort island of Bali, killing 202 people.

Bashir, best known as a co-founder and spiritual head of JI, has been arrested twice before and spent several years in jail. But this is the first time officials say they can link him directly to terrorist activities.

They say he helped set up al-Qaida in Aceh, providing funding, helping choose its leaders — including Dulmatin, one of the alleged masterminds of the Bali bombings — and keeping in regular contact with its field commanders.

Though Bashir faces a maximum penalty of death, few analysts believe he will get that.

“I think the strongest evidence the police are going to have against him is financing the camp in Aceh,” said Sidney Jones, an expert on Southeast Asian terror groups, adding that it is her understanding Dulmatin, killed in a March police raid, reached out to Bashir, not the other way around.

“Looking at the various charges brought against him, my guess is they would produce around a 10-year sentence.”

The overwhelming majority of Indonesians are moderate Muslims who reject violence.

The country’s last suicide bombing at the J.W. Marriott and Ritz Carlton hotels in Jakarta ended a four-year lull in attacks blamed on Jemaah Islamiyah and its affiliates. Since 2002, more than 260 people have died in terrorist attacks. — AP

“It happened so fast,” said Surono, the director of the volcanology and mitigation agency. “There was no time for an evacuation.”

Mount Karangetang, located on Siau, part of the Sulawesi island chain, burst just after midnight when heavy rains broke the volcano’s hot lava dome, which spit out 1,110 degree Fahrenheit (600 Celsius) clouds of gas.

Ash and lava crashed down the mountain’s western slope, destroying at least nine houses, a church and a school, said Priyadi Kardono, an official with the national disaster management agency. A road and a bridge also were badly damaged, leaving more than 2,000 people in the remote area completely isolated.

Kardono said four family members were missing and feared dead. Five others were hospitalized, one in critical condition.

Authorities were trying to evacuate residents living in at least one nearby village, said Tony Supit, a district chief.

In all, about 22,000 people live on Siau island.

The last time the 5,853-foot (1,784-meter) mountain erupted was July 2006.

Indonesia, the world’s largest archipelago, is located on the so-called Pacific “Ring of Fire,” an arc of volcanos and fault lines encircling the Pacific Basin. — AP

The country has become a major trading hub for endangered tortoises and freshwater turtles, including species from Africa, South America and Asia, said Chris Shepherd of TRAFFIC, a British-based international wildlife monitoring network

While the government has passed legislation banning such illegal trade, dealers continue to blatantly sell endangered species without fear of arrest or prosecution, Shepherd said.

Those found Friday at Jakarta’s annual flora and fauna expo — held from July 2 until Aug. 2 — included the world’s most threatened ploughshare tortoise and the critically endangered radiated tortoises, both from Madagascar. They were priced up to $1,700.

Cages also were filled with rare Indian star tortoises, which are protected under the Convention on International Trade on Endangered Species, known as CITES, and the endangered pig-nose tortoise, from Indonesia’s easternmost province of Papua, both selling for up to $500.

Vendors told The Associated Press other threatened tortoises and turtles not found on display could easily be obtained for a price.

“Recent surveys, and this expo, have shown that the trade continues and, in fact, now involves more illegally imported species than ever,” said Shepherd. “Dealers know full well that it is illegal and are taking advantage of the enforcement agencies’ lack of action.”

Indonesia, one of the most biologically diverse nations in the world, has for years sold everything from eagles and leopard cats to gibbons as pets in the capital. Shady transactions continue to take place at the popular Pramuka and Jati Negara markets. — AP

____

Online:

TRAFFIC: http://www.traffic.org/reptiles-amphibians/

Ploughshare Tortoise: http://www.iucnredlist.org/apps/redlist/details/9016/0

Radiated Tortoise: http://www.iucnredlist.org/apps/redlist/details/9014/0

Both countries stressed that the Indonesian military had improved its human rights record, and American officials noted the decision required that those reform efforts continue.

Human rights activists, however, were skeptical that the special forces would be held accountable for past alleged abuses or would reform enough to prevent future abuse.

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates made the announcement after meeting with Indonesia’s President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in the capital of Jakarta.

Indonesia’s special forces were accused of major abuses through the 1990s in the provinces of Papua and Aceh and in East Timor, a former province that has gained independence. The U.S. cut ties with the special forces under a 1997 law that banned U.S. training for foreign military units accused of human rights violations. The ban can be lifted if there have been substantial measures to bring culprits to justice.

“As a result of Indonesian military reform over the past decade … and recent actions taken by the Ministry of Defense to address human rights issues, the United States will begin measured and gradual programs of security cooperation activities with the Indonesian Army Special Forces,” Gates said at a news conference.

“This initial step will take place within the limit of U.S. law and does not signal any lessening of the importance we place on human rights and accountability,” he added.

Yudhoyono guaranteed there would be no more rights abuses by the Indonesian military.

“I’ll guard the Indonesian military reform and ensure that what happened 10 or 20 years ago will not happen again,” the president was quoted as saying by Defense Minister Purnomo Yusgiantoro, who also attended the meeting with Gates.

U.S. State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley told reporters Thursday that Indonesia has improved its human rights. “That said, we’re going in with our eyes open,” Crowley said. “Kopassus has a dark past; we recognize that. We’re going to be insisting that Indonesia live up to its stated commitments. This is very limited. It’s not a slippery slope.”

Washington severed all ties with the Indonesian military in 1999 after troops rampaged through East Timor when it voted to secede from Indonesia. The U.S. lifted that overall ban in 2005 but kept its restrictions against the special forces — known as Kopassus.

International rights groups have said members of Kopassus were linked to the disappearance of student activists in 1997 and 1998 and were never held accountable.

Sen. Patrick Leahy, who authored the U.S. law, said Kopassus was unrepentant and unaccountable still, but he cautiously hoped the new cooperation would lead to reforms.

“I deeply regret that before starting down the road of re-engagement, our country did not obtain and Kopassus did not accept the necessary reforms we have long sought. But a conditional toe in the water is wiser at this stage than diving in,” the Vermont Democrat said in a statement.

He and Gates noted that U.S. cooperation hinges on future reforms, which Leahy said includes suspending Kopassus officers credibly linked to abuses and cooperating in criminal prosecutions.

Hendardi, a prominent rights activist, criticized the decision he claimed was based on economic interest.

“This decision just shows that America is an opportunist which is no longer consistent with its own standard,” said Hendardi, once a lawyer of Xanana Gusmao, now East Timor’s prime minister.

But Gates said that he and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton were both convinced that rapprochement was “the right thing to do at this time.”

Human Rights Watch strongly criticized the decision as undermining the slight progress that Indonesia’s military has made and said in a statement that the United States was disregarding the problems that will persist in implementing reforms and accountability.

“The Indonesian justice system rarely vigorously investigates or prosecutes anyone from the military, so forces like Kopassus will likely still be able to commit abuses with impunity and still meet the Obama administration’s standards,” said Sophie Richardson, Asia advocacy director at the U.S.-based human rights group. “It’s hard to see the administration’s decision as anything other than a victory for abusive militaries worldwide.” — AP

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates made the announcement after meeting with Indonesia’s President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on Thursday in the capital Jakarta. Indonesia had said it wanted the United States to reconsider resuming joint training.

The decision will be seen as a victory for the Indonesian military, which has said it made great strides in improving its human rights record.

Indonesia’s special forces were accused of major abuses in the former Indonesian province of East Timor in the late 1990s. East Timor has since become independent.

“I was pleased to be able to tell the president that as a result of Indonesian military reform over the past decade … and recent actions taken by the Ministry of Defense to address human rights issues, the United States will begin measured and gradual programs of security cooperation activities with the Indonesian Army Special Forces,” Gates said at a press conference.

“This initial step will take place within the limit of U.S. law and does not signal any lessening of the importance we place on human rights and accountability,” he added.

Several countries, including the U.S. and Australia, suspended joint military training in the wake of the rights abuse allegations, though Australia resumed training in 2005.

The U.S. lifted an overall ban against training the Indonesian military in 2005, though it kept the restrictions against the Indonesian special forces — known as Kopassus.

“Our ability to expand after this initial step will depend on continued implementation of reforms with Kopassus and TNI as a whole,” Gates said. “We consider this a very significant development in our military-to-military relationship and look forward to working even more closely … in the years to come.”

Gates didn’t elaborate on the specifics of the resumed cooperation, and took no questions from journalists.

International rights groups said members of Kopassus were linked to the disappearance of student activists in East Timor in 1997 and 1998 and were never held accountable.

In May, 13 U.S. lawmakers sent a letter to U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Gates, saying they worried about whether Indonesia will punish senior officers for past abuses. — AP

JAKARTA (AFP) – Indonesian police said on Monday they would charge eight suspects over a celebrity sex video scandal that has gripped the mainly Muslim nation and fuelled calls for Internet controls.

Chief detective Ito Sumardi refused to name the suspects but said they did not include models and television personalities Luna Maya, 26, and Cut Tari, 32, who allegedly appear in the videos with rock star Nazril Ariel, 28.

Ariel, the singer with local pop band Peterpan, has already been charged with breaches of the anti-pornography law and remains in police custody awaiting trial.

Sumardi said the eight other suspects had uploaded the two explicit videos to the Internet, sparking a national scandal.

“They’ll be charged under the electronic information and transactions law for an illegal distribution,” Ito Sumardi said, meaning they each could face up to six years in jail and a fine of a billion rupiah (110,000 dollars).

“The investigation is ongoing. There may have been others,” he added.

Ariel was arrested on June 22 but Maya and Tari remain free pending investigations. — AFP

BEKASI, Indonesia – A banner with a picture of a young, bespectacled Christian man is draped in front of a mosque, a fiery noose around his neck and the words, “This man deserves the death penalty!”

Churches are shut down. And an Islamic youth militia held its first day of training.

Though the events all occurred less than nine miles (15 kilometers) from Indonesia’s bustling capital, making headlines in local papers and dominating chats on social networking sites such as Facebook, they’ve sparked little public debate in the halls of power.

“I really see this as a threat to democracy,” said Arbi Sanit, a political analyst, noting leaders never like to say anything that can be perceived as “un-Islamic,” because they depend heavily on the support of Muslim parties in parliament.

“Being popular is more important to them than punishing those who are clearly breaking the law,” Sanit said.

Indonesia, a secular nation with more Muslims than any other in the world, has a long history of religious tolerance, though a small extremist fringe has become more vocal in recent years. Members of the Islamic Defenders Front, or FPI, have been known to smash bars, attack transvestites and go after minority sects with bamboo clubs and stones.

Now, they are targeting Christians in the fast-growing industrial city of Bekasi.

Outsiders have steadily poured into the Jakarta suburb in search of work, bringing with them their own religions, traditions and values. That has made conservative Islamic clerics nervous. Some have used sermons to warn their flock to be on the lookout for signs of proselytization.

So, when 14 busloads of villagers arrived on June 30 at the home of Henry Sutanto, who heads the Christian-run Mahanaim Foundation, rumors quickly spread that he and Andreas Sanau, the condemned man whose face appeared on the mosque banner, were planning a mass baptism.

A spokeswoman for the group, Marya Irawan, insisted the crowds were invited as part of efforts to reach out to the poor.

The FPI was not convinced. Video footage provided by the hard-line group shows hundreds of people getting off buses and entering the residential complex, many of them women in headscarves holding babies in slings, and milling about the pool. When a questioner thrust the camera in their faces, demanding to know why they came, most just looked bewildered.

“Someone asked if I wanted to come,” one woman said with a shrug. Others accepted a ride into the city because they were bored, and thought they would at least get a free lunch out of it.

When the questioner found Sanau, who had one ear to a phone, he asked if baptisms would be taking place. The 29-year-old Christian’s brow furrowed. He shook his head, “No, no.” Asked if he had an ID card, Sanau flashed it at the interviewer, who zoomed in on his home address. The house has since been abandoned.

“He should be executed!” said Murhali Barda, who heads the Bekasi chapter of the FPI. “He tried to carry out mass baptisms!”

Days later, Barda’s group joined nine others in recommending at a local congress that Bekasi mosques help set up youth militias to act as moral police and to intimidate Christians who are trying to convert Muslims.

They started training Saturday morning, about 100 young men turning out on a field wearing martial arts uniforms. Barda stressed there was no plan to arm them.

“We’re doing this because we want to strike fear in the hearts of Christians who behave in such a way,” he said. “If they refuse to stop what they’re doing, we’re ready to fight.”

A regional leader of the Indonesian Muslim Forum, Bernard Abdul Jabbar, said the youths were given physical training and taught about Islam. “They will guard the Islamic faith and preach the right path to the people,” he said.

Priest Andreas Yewangoe, a chairman of the Communion of Indonesian Churches, said the militia will only create fear, nervousness and unrest in the nation. “The government must protect all citizens from anarchist action as mandated by the constitution,” Yewangoe said.

Religious-led violence has been on the rise for months in Bekasi.

Mobs have forced shut two churches this year. Last month, a statue of three women was torn down by authorities after hundreds of hard-liners wearing skull caps and white robes took to the streets, claiming the monument symbolized the Holy Trinity.

Weeks earlier, black-clad youths attacked a Catholic-run school over an anonymous blogger’s “blasphemous” website.

Increasingly, the public has jumped into the debate.

Stories appear regularly on the front pages of newspapers about FPI. Opinion pages are filled with letters calling for the group to be banned. More than 50,000 people signed petitions on Facebook, which has turned into a portent political force.

The government has made no public comment except when three lawmakers were attacked by FPI during a meeting in East Java. — AP

A panel of judges at the South Jakarta District Court, however, sentenced Al Khelaiw Ali Abdullah to 18 months in prison for violating immigration laws. They said the 55-year-old, who had been running an Internet cafe east of Jakarta, entered the country several times since 2008 and ran business without a proper visa.

The July 17, 2009, attacks on the J.W. Marriott and Ritz Carlton hotels in the world’s most populous Muslim nation ended a four-year lull in suicide bombings blamed on the al Qaida-linked regional network, Jemaah Islamiyah and its affiliates. Together, more than 260 people have died, many of them foreign tourists.

Abdullah was accused of lending money to Syaefudin Zuhri, one of the alleged masterminds of last year’s hotel attacks, after meeting him and a man who later turned out to be one of the suicide bombers at the airport in Jakarta. Zuhri, who was killed by anti-terror police during a raid in October, helped the Saudi by sponsoring his six-month visa.

“From evidence presented at the trial, the panel concluded the defendant knew nothing about Zuhri’s background,” said presiding judge Ida Bagus Dwiyantara. “Therefore he was proven not guilty of the main charges (terrorism).”

The same court earlier sentenced five militants to up to eight years in jail in connection with the bombings. — AP