ABC AUSTRALIA, 24/12/2003 18:34:50
Indonesia seeks Interpol help to track down convicted separatist
Indonesia is seeking the help of the international police organisation Interpol to help
find and arrest a convicted separatist leader.
The chairman of the Maluku Sovereignty Front, Alexander Manuputty, has reportedly
fled to the United States.
Manuputty and his deputy were arrested in the Maluku provincial capital, Ambon, last
April after encouraging their followers to hoist banned flags of the so-called Republic of
South Maluku.
Manuputty is currently facing four years' jail in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, for
subversion.
The Maluku Sovereignty Front, whose supporters are mainly Christians, was set up
following bloody clashes between Muslims and Christians in the Malukus at the end
of the 1990s.
24/12/2003 18:34:50 | ABC Radio Australia News
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