Jakarta – The leader of an Islamic paramilitary force which has waged "holy war" against Christians in Indonesia's Maluku islands denied Wednesday that its radio broadcasts are aimed at destroying a recent peace pact.

Jaafar Umar Thalib, commander of Laskar Jihad (holy war force), said his group's radio station – The Voice of The Muslim Struggle in Maluku – was set up to balance "local press reports in the Malukus which are always unbalanced and always disparage Muslims."

Maluku governor Saleh Latuconsina wants to close down the station for "provocative" reporting which he says threatens a Muslim-Christian peace deal brokered by the government last month.

Thalib told a seminar on broadcasting that pressure to close down the station came from rival media in the Malukus, state television and radio and two local newspapers. "Those sides who own these local media are feeling uncomfortable ... and there has since been this polemics about our radio being provocative and the pressure for the governor to close us down," Thalib said.

He described the content of his radio as part religious sermons quoting the Koran and the Prophet's sayings and part news reports from the field, plus comments from officials and experts. "We also commented on the Malino II pact, but because there was a government statement that said that whoever is against the Malino II pact is also against the government, this case [of pressure for the shutdown] also arose," Thalib said.

Laskar Jihad was not invited to the peace talks in the South Sulawesi hill resort of Malino. It says the deal was flawed because it did not encompass all sides in the conflict. The Java-based group has said it will not leave the Malukus even though the peace deal calls for outside forces to withdraw, because it is engaged in "humanitarian work."

Thalib admitted that his radio did not possess the required licence. The current frequency belongs to a radio station owned by a Muslim which has ceased to operate since the sectarian conflict broke out in Ambon city in the islands in January 1999.

More than 5,000 people were killed and more than half a million driven from their homes. The peace deal is largely holding so far. In May 2000 Laskar Jihad – with the apparent connivance of security forces – sent thousands of fighters to the Malukus. Christians say it played a major part in fanning the violence while some Muslims accuse Christian groups of doing likewise.

Thalib has denied his group has links to international terror. He says he met accused terror mastermind Osama bin Laden while both were fighting against Soviet occupiers in Afghanistan in the 1980's, but maintains he disagrees with bin Laden's ideology.

Last year he was questioned by police over a Laskar Jihad makeshift Islamic court in Maluku which ordered an adulterer stoned to death. He was never prosecuted. Laskar Jihad forces were also involved in Muslim-Christian battles in the Poso region of Central Sulawesi. A December agreement also reached at Malino ended fighting there.