2007-05-30 12:32:47 -

SYDNEY, Australia (AP) - A coroner was urged Wednesday to make an official finding that invading Indonesian forces deliberately shot to death five Australia-based journalists in East Timor in 1975, and to refer the case to war crimes prosecutors.

The submissions were made at a long-running inquest into the killings, which separately triggered a diplomatic

spat Wednesday between Indonesia and Australia and an angry anti-Australian protest in Jakarta after police confronted a senior Indonesian official during a visit to Sydney.

The developments threatened to reopen old wounds surrounding the so-called Balibo five _ members of two television news crews killed on Oct. 16, 1975. Successive Australian and Indonesian governments have ruled they were caught in crossfire and the killings were accidental.

Mark Tedeschi, the senior lawyer assisting an inquest by the New South Wales state coroner, said Wednesday the evidence it uncovered was enough to prove the official version of events was wrong.

«The journalists were not killed by being caught in crossfire ... but rather were deliberately killed by the Indonesian troops who had arrived at the Balibo town square,» Tedeschi said in his wrap-up of the evidence.

He said the evidence was strong enough for the coroner to refer it to Australian federal prosecutors to judge whether two people _ whom he didn't name _ should stand trial for war crimes.

«This case ... cries out for referral» to higher authorities, he said.

Deputy state coroner Dorelle Pinch is investigating the death of one of the journalists, Brian Peters, and has heard detailed testimony from witnesses and seen documentary evidence on the final days of all of them.

After hearing submissions from all parties, Pinch will make a finding on Peters' cause of death. She can refer her findings to prosecuting authorities if she suspects foul play, but does not have power to lay charges herself.

Pinch has consistently said she has no power to compel foreign witnesses to appear before her inquest, and it is unclear whether any legal action can be pursued even if she recommends it.

Tedeschi said the journalists' slayings may constitute a war crime under the Geneva Conventions, in which case trials could be held in Australia.

Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer noted Wednesday that Pinch had not yet made her findings, but said the government would consider following them up «if they have any bearing on foreign policy.»

In her latest attempt to get an Indonesian official to testify, Pinch ordered police to serve a subpoena on Jakarta Gov. Sutiyoso at his Sydney hotel on Tuesday during a visit to the city. She said Wednesday she was later advised the subpoena may not be legal, so the police instead asked if he would attend the hearings.

He declined, and left Australia shortly afterward, cutting short his trip in outrage.

«They barged into my room after forcing the hotel to give them a duplicate key,» Sutiyoso told reporters in Jakarta. «I feel harassed as an official state guest from a sovereign country.»

Indonesian Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda said Australia's ambassador would be summoned to explain the police action _ a diplomatic reprimand.

Hundreds of Sutiyoso supporters rallied outside the Australian Embassy on Wednesday shouting «Go to hell Australia.»

The case is highly sensitive in Australia due to reports Canberra knew about Jakarta's plans to invade East Timor and tacitly endorsed them because it preferred the half-island territory to be ruled by Indonesia rather than be independent.

Tedeschi said the evidence proved that Yunus Yosfiah _ then an Indonesian military captain and later a government minister _ ordered the shootings and took part in them himself, and that Yosfiah was probably acting on orders from higher up.

Yosfiah has dismissed as lies the claims that he ordered the journalists' deaths.

Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesman Kristiarto Legowo on Wednesday reiterated Indonesia's stance that the journalists were caught in crossfire, adding, «This case for us is closed.»

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Associated Press writers Niniek Karmini in Jakarta and Rod McGuirk in Canberra contributed to this story.