INDONESIA A NEWS

THE pilot at the controls when a Garuda plane crashed in Yogyakarta killing 21 people, including five Australians, should be jailed for four years for causing the accident through criminal negligence, prosecutors have told a panel of judges.The sentence request angered Captain Marwoto Komar's lawyers but was far less than the jail term prosecutors could have asked for if they had decided he had deliberately caused the crash on March 7, 2007. "The air at the time was clear, the runway was clear and no other plane was about to take off," prosecutors told Sleman District Court in Yogyakarta. "The defendant was not careful enough . [and] is legally and convincingly proven to have caused the death of 21 people and left 32 others with serious injuries."Yesterday the court heard that on approach the plane was travelling at 240 knots, about twice the speed recommended for a safe landing. It also tried to land from 5000 feet, rather than the appropriate height of 4000 fe

The Kuala Kangsar Session Court in Perak State, Malaysia, yesterday tried an Indonesian citizen, Idris Muhammad Thaib, inc court for taking part in a demonstration without a license.Idris, 34, was arrested on February 6 along with eight other pro-opposition demonstrators who protested against the alleged seizure of power in Perak. The Indonesian migrant working at the Padang Changkat plantation in Perak will be charged with Chapters 27 (4) and (8) of the 1967 Police Acts. If found guilty, the defendant will be fined a maximum of 10.000 Malaysian ringgit fines and sentenced to one year imprisonment.At the end of the trial, chief judge, Norsalha, approved the prosecutor's request to postpone the sentence, as requested by the nine defendants. Eight Malaysian defendants were asked for collateral of 4.000 Malaysian ringgit each, while Idris was asked to pay 5.000 Malaysian ringgit. His passport was detained during the trial.When contacted by Tempo, the Indonesian Embassy's Informat

INDONESIAN President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has sent the country's security establishment into a spin and left political observers divided after alluding to a mysterious campaign by unnamed army officers to unseat him in this year's elections.Displaying his famed Javanese circumlocution, Dr Yudhoyono called in senior military and police officers to the State Palace last week and, in the presence of the media, revealed his concern about a rumoured "ABS" campaign."ABS," he said, stood for "Anyone But S". Who "S" was Yudhoyono would not say, although it seems a clear reference to his own campaign for re-election.Moreover, he looked the officers in the eye and, as the TV cameras rolled, said he did not believe the rumour, before giving them a stern lecture about the importance of political neutrality during this upcoming legislative and presidential polls.What followed was a flurry of meetings among serving and retired military and police o