Indonesia to hold convicted militants in new prison

JAKARTA, March 6 (Reuters) Indonesia will next month open a prison especially built to isolate militants convicted of terrorism and keep them from communicating easily with supporters or comrades still at large, officials said today.

The high security facility off the coast of Java island will not allow inmates access to mobile phones and other means of communications, Indonesia's justice minister told Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer at a security meeting in Jakarta.

Hamid Awaluddin ''made it perfectly clear that he was concerned about the way terrorists had been gaining access to the media and to other organisations'', Downer told reporters after a regional ministerial meeting on security.

''The Indonesian government rightly wants to deal with that.'' Security in Indonesian prisons has been tightened following a revelation that a man on death row for the 2002 Bali bombings had gained access to a mobile telephone and a laptop, allowing him to connect to the Internet and communicate with fellow militants on the run.

Indonesian Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda said the new prison was located on Nusakambangan island, off the coast of Central Java province.

Nusakambangan currently has three jail houses designated for hardened criminals and people convicted of serious crimes, including corruption.

Indonesia and Australia, which co-chaired the two-day conference, have worked closely ever since the Bali bombings.

Australians accounted for many of the more than 200 people killed in the bomb attacks that targetted foreign tourists.

The 2002 bombings have been blamed on Southeast Asian militant network Jemaah Islamiah (JI). Regional authorities believe it was also behind more recent major bombings.

GREAT KILLING POWER The security conference discussed ways to prevent militants from obtaining weapons of great killing power such as chemical and biological arms, reinforce law enforcement cooperation and promote interfaith dialogue to counter religious extremism.

Downer said ''terrorists have expressed on so many occasions views that they would like to have access particularly to biological and chemical weapons and there's some evidence they've tried to obtain them.'' Wirajuda said the region had made substantial progress in countering terrorism but it must remain vigilant.

''Terrorism remains a clear and present theat and terrorists are still capable of inflicting severe damage to our communities. They are still recruiting new operatives and developing new strategies and tactics,'' he said.

Officials said at the start of the meeting that militants were constantly adopting new strategies, including use of technology such as the Internet.

The meeting, attended by foreign ministers and police chiefs from six regional countries, is a follow-up to a similar 2004 conference.

Indonesian police have arrested more than 200 militants over the past few years and killed JI's alleged top bombmaker.

The six nations believe JI is bent on creating an Islamic state across their territories through a campaign of violence.

Around 85 percent of Indonesia's 220 million people follow Islam, making it the world's largest Muslim population. Most Indonesian Muslims are moderates but there is an radical element as well.

REUTERS MS PM1602