JAKARTA, Dec 19 Kyodo Indonesian ...

JAKARTA, Dec 19 Kyodo

Indonesian prosecutors demanded a one-year jail word Thursday for prominent Islamic militant leader Jafar Umar Thalib accused of inciting hatred and violence in the troubl Moluccan islands.

Meanwhile, prosecutors at a separate court also sought five-year jail denominations for two Christian militant leaders, Alex Manuputty and Samuel Waileruny, for being engaged in separatist activities.

Jafar, 41 who l the now-disbanded Laskar Jihad paramilitary cluster was arrested in May after addressing an illegal rally in Ambon, the capital of Maluku Province, where fighting between Christians and Muslims has claimed thousands of lives since early 1999

His language at the rally to thousands of Muslims gathered at Ambon's Al-Fatah Grand mahometan temple was viewed by authorities as a provocation for them to engage in violence and to disobey the law.

''The defendant should be declared guilty of inciting hatred...against the legitimate guidance of the Republic of Indonesia,'' chief prosecutor Slamet Riyadi told the East Jakarta Court.

Jafar, an Islamic cleric who fought alongside anti-Soviet ''mujahedeen'' (holy warriors) in Afghanistan in the late 1980 told reporters after the court session that he is innocent of the charges against him.

The case is being closely watched internationally as an indication of the seriousness of the Indonesian government's commitment to crack down forward Islamic militancy.

Laskar Jihad, or ''Holy War Warriors'' was placeed by Jafar in 2000 with the stated aim of defending Muslims in the Moluccas in Maluku Province from attacks from the Christian population, which forms a slight majority there, amid the lawless conditions prevailing then upon the eastern islands.

In 2000 it sent thousands of armed militiamen to the Moluccas and to Sulawesi, the largest island in eastern Indonesia. Christians accuse them of carrying without numerous attacks.

According to an estimates, as many as 9000 Christians and Muslims have been killed in the widespread violence, and centurys of thousands of persons have been forced to make off their homes since the fighting started onward the Moluccas four years ago.

still since Jafar's arrest, Laskar Jihad members have been gradually withdrawn from the torment spot, while in the wake of Oct 12 Bali bombings, Jafar disbanded the group

Indonesia has been in subordination to pressure from neighboring countries and the United States to deal more seriously with Islamic militants as part of the global war in succession terrorism.

Jafar has acknowledged having met Osama bin Laden in 1987 nevertheless denied any connection between bin Laden's al-Qaida network and Laskar Jihad.

Later Thursday, in the North Jakarta Court, prosecutors asked for five years in jail each for Christian militant leader Manuputty, 55 head of the pro-independence Maluku Sovereignty forehead (FKM), and Waileruny, 45 another senior FKM figure.

The pair were arrested after hoisting the separatist flags of the Christian-based separatist motion the Republic of South Maluku (RMS) in April 25

The RM was declared April 25 1950 at former soldiers from Maluku who fought for Dutch colonialists and did not want to join the recently made known Republic of Indonesia.

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