Ba'asyir's trial to start soon

Ba'asyir's trial to start soon

JAKARTA: The Central Jakarta Prosecutor's Office will submit
to the court on Monday the case file on Muslim cleric Abu Bakar
Ba'asyir who is charged with immigration and subversion offenses,

The handover of the files to the Central Jakarta District
Court will start the countdown to the much-awaited trial of
Ba'asyir, who is suspected of being the spiritual leader of the
Jamaah Islamiyah (JI) terrorist group.

Ba'asyir has been detained for almost six months. Despite
resistance from Ba'asyir's followers, police arrested him several
days after the Bali bomb blasts that killed 202 people on Oct. 12
last year.

JI is said to be a wing of the al-Qaeda international terror
network operating in Southeast Asia, and is aimed at establishing
a theocratic state covering Indonesia and neighboring countries.

Ba'asyir, 64, has denied any wrongdoing. -- JP

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Scene-YLBHI-problems
LBH offices permitted to raise fund
JP/4/SCENE

LBH offices allowed to raise funds

JAKARTA: Legal Aid Institute (LBH) offices across the country
will continue to provide pro bono services as their parent
organization, the Indonesian Legal Aid Institute (YLBHI), has
decided to allow them to raise funds following its financial
difficulties.

"We have agreed to let the LBH offices raise funds themselves
as we can't play a central role any longer," Wirawan of LBH
Bandung, who presided over the YLBHI national meeting, said on
Friday.

A total of 14 LBH offices agreed that they would start raising
funds from those local and international donors that are not
banned by the YLBHI.

The LBH offices will also continue to recognize the YLBHI as
their parent organization despite the fact that they will be
allowed to finance their own operations.

The LBH offices used to depend financially on the YLBHI, the
only party previously permitted to raise funds. The YLBHI used to
pay out Rp 500 million a month to fund the running of the LBH
offices.

The YLBHI's financial shortages worsened after it severed ties
with funding organizations from the United States, Australia and
Britain in protest against these countries' involvement in the
attack on Iraq. -- JP

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Environment-WSSD-result
JP/4/environ

Action needed to implement WSSD

JAKARTA: Experts said on Friday the results of the World
Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) would remain mere words
on paper if no concrete action was taken at home.

Noted environmentalist Emil Salim urged the relevant ministers
to draw up action plans to implement the recommendations of the
WSSD, and to stick to them.

"At least five sectors must start sitting down together to
prepare action plans, namely the water, health, energy,
agriculture and biodiversity sectors," he said.

"Don't talk so much, just do it."

Mas Achmad Santosa of the Indonesian Center for Environment
Law (ICEL) agreed with Emil, and slammed ill-conceived policies
that neglected the environment.

"We can see how other ministries want to revise Law No.
41/1999 on forestry so as to permit mining in protected forests,
and how the Jakarta administration wants its coastal reclamation
project to continue despite the decision of the State Minister
for the Environment to prohibit it," he said. -- JP