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Jakarta, Indonesia, Feb. 17 (UPI)

Indonesian investigators Monday turned over evidence against a key suspect in 
last October's Bali bombings to prosecutors who have two weeks to decide if Ali 
Gufron will be tried. 

Gufron, the alleged coordinator of the al Qaida linked Jemaah Islamiyah, faces 
terrorism-related charges and if convicted could be executed. 

Pasek Suartha, of the Bali deputy prosecutor's office, said the island's 
prosecutor's office would have two weeks to review the 1,046-page long dossier 
submitted Monday to determine if police had sufficient evidence for a trial. 

Gufron is accused of being the planner and the field coordinator of the Oct. 
12, 2002, bombings of two nightclubs in Bali. The blasts, which hit the 
island's favorite tourist spot -- Kuta beach - killed at least 196 people, 
mostly foreign tourists. 

At least 25 people, including Guffron, have been arrested in connection with 
the blasts and more suspects are believed to be on the run. 

On Wednesday, police are scheduled to submit evidence on Imam Samudra, the 
alleged mastermind of the attacks, to the prosecutor's office. Evidence will 
also be turned in against three other suspects in the case -- Rauf, Junaedi and 
Yudi, who like many Indonesians are known by one name. 

All men are in custody as is Ali Imron, another of the key accused. 

Investigators say Gufron, Samudra and Imron are members of Jemaah Islamiyah, a 
regional militant group believed to have links with al Qaida. 

Abu Bakar Baasyir, 64, the alleged spiritual leader of the group, has been 
detained in Jakarta, and is expected to be charged. 

Also Monday, Amrozi, another of the suspects in the case, faces new charges, 
including the illegal possession of weapons and ammunition. Amrozi, the owner 
of the minivan that was used to carry the explosives that blew up the Sari Club 
in Bali, is also being tried for his alleged role in the church bombings on 
Christmas Eve 2000 in East Java town of Mojokerto.
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ABC Radio Australia News 
17/02/2003 22:21:37
Indonesian military chief on trial over E Timor massacres 

A former Indonesian military chief says he tried to prevent massacres in East 
Timor in September 1999 and none of his own men was involved. 

Colonel Noer Muis is charged with failing to prevent attacks on the diocese in 
Dili and on the Dili bishop's residence, in which 13 people died. 

He is also accused of failing to prevent an attack on a church in Suai on 
September 6 in which 26 people were killed. 

Prosecutors have asked that he be jailed for 10 years for gross rights 
violations. 

Muis denied that the military had failed to take any action to stem the 
violence.
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The Age (Melbourne)
Torture jail now a peace centre
February 18 2003
By Jill Jolliffe, Dili

President Xanana Gusmao, East Timor's most famous former prisoner, yesterday 
inaugurated a former torture chamber as a reconciliation centre, with a wish 
that torture would never again occur in East Timor.

"I hope that this building, so long steeped in tragedy, can be a living centre 
to document the history of East Timor... so that young people can learn about 
the past and... make a commitment to protect human rights forever," he said, 
cutting the ribbon to the renovated Balide prison, where thousands were 
tortured during 24 years of Indonesian occupation.

The ceremony opened two days of public hearings by former prisoners, sponsored 
by East Timor's Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation. The 
hearings cover the period from Portugal's announced decolonisation in April 
1974 to Indonesia's withdrawal in 1999, and include evidence from a man 
tortured by Fretilin guerillas in 1977, when the now-governing party maltreated 
and executed dissidents.

UN administrator Kamalesh Sharma told former prisoners: "I want to pay my 
respects... you stand for the many colleagues who did not survive."

It is the first time since 1999 that the former prisoners have spoken publicly. 
The 13 testifying include several people tortured by the Indonesian army in the 
Balide jail.

The youngest witness, Maria Pereira, entered it in 1976 aged five with her 
mother. During four years she saw her mother severely tortured and was later 
tortured herself. During the renovation, she planted a special garden in the 
courtyard of the prison.

The first prisoner to testify was Bernardino Vilanova, jailed in June 1980 for 
his part in an uprising in Dili. He was first held in an Indonesian barracks. 

"They said I was withholding information about the Church's involvement," he 
testified emotionally. "I refused to disclose anything, and they began to 
administer electric shocks and burn me with cigarettes." 

The commission began work last year and its "truth-seeking" division has so far 
collected testimony on human rights violations from 2500 citizens. It has no 
power to prosecute perpetrators.

The old Portuguese jail was restored by Tasmanian firm Pitt & Sherry with $US1 
million from Japan. A former prisoner was shocked to see that only some of the 
graffiti in his old cell was kept. "It makes me angry," he said. "It was part 
of my life."
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Australian Broadcasting Corp.
Tue, Feb 18 2003 10:37 AM AEDT
Govt accused of holding E Timor to ransom over gas

Labor Senator for the Northern Territory Trish Crossin says the Federal 
Government is holding the East Timorese Government to ransom over gas from the 
Bayu Undan field north of Darwin. 

Senator Crossin has revealed the draft Timor Sea Treaty bill has not been 
finished.

The Government must ratify the Timor Sea Treaty before companies can meet 
deadlines for contracts.

Senator Crossin says the Government has only four sitting days left in this 
session of Parliament to meet the gas company Conoco Phillips deadline of March 
11.

"What this Government is seeking to do you see is to link the Timor Gap treaty 
with the unitisation negotiations quite separately. They are quite separate 
negotiations there is no need to link them," she said. 

"This Government is choosing to almost hold the East Timor Government at ransom 
by trying to link the two."