JAKARTA (Reuters) - Indonesian prosecutors accused the head of the best-known Muslim militant group on Thursday of inciting hatred when he delivered a speech earlier this year in the strife-torn Moluccas islands.
The trial of Laskar Jihad leader Jafar Umar Thalib marks the first prosecution of a radical Muslim cleric under President Megawati Sukarnoputri, a move some analysts say will boost her standing in the international community.
"The defendant said the government was selling out the Moluccas. (Thalib said) 'tell that to (national police chief) General (Da'i) Bachtiar and his dogs who exaggerate the burning of churches,'" state prosecutor Slamet Rijanto told the court on Thursday.
"(He also said) 'Hereby, I declare war on the RMS Christians. I urge president Megawati to capture those traitors... No more reconciliation'," the prosecutor added, repeating Thalib's speech made in front of a mosque in Ambon, the main city of the Moluccas which lies some 2,300 km east of Jakarta.
The South Moluccas Republic, or RMS, was a movement born in the 1950s with its call for Moluccan independence but over the past few years Muslims have said a radical faction of this group has now declared war on them.
Police arrested Alex Manuputty, leader of the RMS faction in April, and he is due to stand trial next Monday on charges of subversion. Analysts estimate Manuputty's faction has around 100 supporters spread throughout the island chain.
Thalib, who has denied all charges of wrongdoing, faces a maximum penalty of seven years in jail if convicted.
The charismatic Muslim cleric came to Thursday's trial at the East Jakarta court along with around 150 supporters who occasionally chanted "God is Great" during the session.
"I was preaching in the mosque in accordance to my religion. I don't understand the content of the charges," Thalib, wearing a white robe and turban, told the court.
Police detained him in May for the speech, which was also broadcast on local radio throughout the Moluccas, where a wave of clashes between Muslims and Christians have claimed over 5,000 lives since early 1999.
Laskar Jihad sent thousands of fighters to the Moluccas in mid-2000, worsening tension in the once idyllic spice islands, but a peace pact earlier this year has stopped most of the violence.
Some 85 percent of Indonesia's 210 million people are Muslim but only a tiny fraction are radical. Christians share equal numbers in some eastern areas in the sprawling nation.