Indonesians say US being unseemly

Indonesians across the political spectrum are lashing back at international criticism of the verdict in the trial of the militant Islamic cleric Abu Bakar Bashir, who was acquitted of terrorism charges on Tuesday. The Indonesians say that the US refused to share intelligence information that would have helped convict him and that it is unseemly for Western democracies to criticize the outcome of a public trial.

The court found that the cleric was not the leader of the Jemaah Islamiyah terrorist organization, and it sentenced him to four years for sedition, arising from his support for an Islamic state.

"This nascent democracy does not need any backlash from the US and its allies," the moderate Jakarta Post, the country's largest English-language daily, wrote in an editorial on Friday. "What it does need is honest global cooperation in its war against terrorism."

"There was important information missing from Bashir's trial, which could have been gotten from Hambali," said Indonesia's foreign minister, Hassan Wirayada. "This information would have connected Bashir with the Jemaah Islamiyah terror group."

Hambali, considered a top operative of al-Qaeda and a leader of Jemaah Islamiyah, is an Indonesian whose real name is Riduan Isamuddin.

He was seized last month by the CIA and the Thai police, working together. The US is holding him at a secret location and has not let foreign interrogators near him.

The US and Australia both withheld considerable information collected by their intelligence agencies about Bashir from the Indonesian prosecutors, said officials from those countries.

Generally, the US is reluctant to share intelligence information, even with close allies, out of concern for disclosing sources and methods; the concern is compounded in a developing country like Indonesia.

The official and public reaction to the criticism of the Bashir verdict highlights how delicate the US' task here is. Its prodding, and Australia's, has moved Indonesia to take a harder line on terrorism, including arresting Bashir, who had been considered untouchable.

Indonesians are bristling at the suggestions -- mostly from Western journalists, analysts, pundits and officials -- that the verdict raises questions about the country's commitment to fighting terrorism.

Mistrust of the US has hardened since the war in Iraq, and the failure to find unconventional weapons, said Bambang Harymurti, editor of Quran Tempo, a daily ``newspaper, and of Tempo magazine, an influential English-language weekly.

The Bush administration has not helped its case by treating Indonesia as an inferior partner in the campaign against terrorism.

There may, however, be some unexpected positive results of the Bashir verdict.

"It dispels the conspiracy theories, the belief that the United States is behind everything, that it forced Indonesia to prosecute Bashir," said Goenawan Mohamad, one of the country's leading intellectuals, a political liberal.

It will also force the country's Muslims to question their convictions that only an Islamic court can dispense justice, he said.

In a country that lived under a dictator until 1988, the judicial due process that was on display is more important than the outcome, he said.