Crisis Centre Diocese of Amboina - Report no. 133 (31/01/2001) #809
PROVOCATEUR OF THE CONFLICT AT KESUI - According to "Suara Maluku" newspaper,
somebody whose name is not mentioned, was brought to the governor when the evacuationship
lay anchored off the coast of Kesui. It then became apparent that the conflict on the island of
Kesui was triggered in a not much different way from what had been the start of whole North
Moluccas conflict last year: namely a provocating letter which was had allegedly been written
by (protestant) Church leaders. The governor entrusted the case to the local police commander
(Though having been invited, the Provincial Police was not represented in the evacuation team).
Crisis Centre Diocese of Amboina - Report no. 132 (30/01/2001) #807 EVACUATION OF KESUI CHRISTIANS - Most of the following information has been
summarized from "Suara Maluku" newspaper. Since the Kesui case seems to have become
front-page news, we report on it more elaborately than usually.
Sequence of documentation pictures
(1) - a Christian from Hative Besar was
shot while defending his village from
jihad attackers (2) The destruction of
Silo church (2nd biggest church in
Ambon city) at Dec, 26 1999 by jihad
attackers, (3) Destoyed shops at AY
Patty street, Ambon city. The shops
mainly belongs to the Chinese Ambonese
Christians.
Ambon Berdarah On-Line will move to its
new location by the end of January 2001
Terror Attacks in the Name of Religion
(29/01/2001) #806
Circumcision has been forced on hundreds of
Christians, including children and pregnant
women, in a campaign by extremists to
spread Islam through the war-ravaged Maluku
islands.
Victims have told the Herald of multiple
cuttings with the same knives and razors that
caused many to suffer infections.
In the biggest city in the islands, Ambon,
church and other groups have gathered
evidence that 3,928 villagers on at least six
islands have been forced to convert to Islam
under the threat of death, torture or
destruction of their homes.
(right) Historical picture of Ambonese
Muslims in Nederland who supported the
RMS movement which was declared in 1950
Crisis Centre Diocese of Amboina - Report
no. 131 (28/01/2001) #803 INVESTIGATION ON THE "WIJAYA II" CASE -
Following the arrest of three high ranking police
officers and one military officer at the Wijaya II
hotel in the early hours of Monday January 22
(see Report 128 no. 2), an investigation team has
arrived from Jakarta, sent by Supreme
Commander of the Indonesain Armed Forces
(TNI) Widodo. The team consists of eight persons
of the military Intelligence, the Inspection and the
military Police (POM).
Crisis Centre Diocese of Amboina - Report
no. 130 (27/01/2001) #799 HATUALANG ATTACKED - In the early morning
of January 24, about 500 muslim warriors
attacked the hamlet of Hatualang, part of the village of Alang Asaude, not far from the little town
of Piru at the western end of the island of Ceram. The attackers arrived at the shore on two
motorboats. They outnumbered the locally stationed military security forces of Battalion Yonif
731/Kabaressy. Infantery sergeant Yusman, while guiding the civilians to safer location was
shot by the attackers.
Crisis Centre Diocese of Amboina - Report no. 129 (24/01/2001) #790 ARRESTMENT - After the tenseness of January 22, yesterday and also today the atmosphere
in Ambon was/is near to normal. However, at 11.15 yesterday morning, two young muslims,
Udin (20) and Kasim (19), were caught by police security forces while entering the front yard of
the Governor s Office trying to smuggle in two molotov cocktails. They said they had made
these bombs themselves and had hoped to sell them to a military serviceman. However it is
feared that they may have had the intention to damage either the Governor s Office or the
nearby Maranatha church.
Crisis Centre Diocese of Amboina - Report no. 128 (24/01/2001) #788 HIGH RANKING OFFICERS ARRESTED - There was much shooting near the shore of Mardika
neighbourhood between muslims and the security forces starting at about 9.00 PM on January
21 up to about 8.00 AM the following morning, resulting in, on muslim side, ten people being
killed and more than a dozen wounded. The locally stationed Marinirs and Combined Military
Forces (Yon-Gab) were more and more being surrounded by the attackers, they were even shot
at from building upper floors.
Indonesia: International Action Needed on Ambon Violence (23/01/2001) #783
A traditional alliance mechanism between Muslims and Christians, called "pela," had no
relevance to the migrants, and low-level fighting between Christian and Muslim migrant
communities was commonplace. While Christians traditionally dominated the local civil service
and police, this began to change in the mid-1990s when a Muslim Ambonese was named
governor and began to fill vacancies with Muslim appointees, The situation grew perceptibly
worse after incidents of church-burnings and attacks on mosques in Jakarta
Crisis Centre Diocese of Amboina - Report no. 127 (22/01/2001) #778 MOST TERRIBLE CIVIL WAR - Dr. Thamrin Tomagola, sociologist at the Universitas
Indonesia, Jakarta, says that the conflict in the Moluccas is the most terrible civil war in the
world . If only compared to Bosnia he says, according to Siwalima that five year war claimed
10.000 casualties, whereas the Moluccas in barely two years time, have already 8.000 killed.
The number of refugees or LDPs is over 350.000. He further says that of the 6.000 Jihad troops,
4.000 meanwhile have left the Moluccas. He urges that the remaining 2.000 should leave the
Moluccas immediately.
Crisis Centre Diocese of Amboina - Report no. 126 (22/01/2001) #777 MUSLIMS VS. MUSLIMS - The conflict between Muslims in the afternoon of January 19, in
which three people were wounded, did not take place at Tial, like we wrote in Report 125 no. 2,
but at Waai. A motorcar travelling from Liang to Tulehu, while passing the totally destroyed and
abandoned christian village of Waai, was shot at, wounding three people. Chief Military
Commander I Made Yassa declared on local TV that the gunmen could not possibly have been
christians, since there are not any christians in the Waai area.
Crisis Centre Diocese of Amboina - Report no. 125 (22/01/2001) #776 SHOOTING AND BOMBING - After intensive praying by each party muslims and christians on
January 19, remembering the beginning of the conflict exactly two years ago, during the
following evening and night much shooting and bombing was heard in the town of Ambon,
coming from the neighbourhoods of Batumerah, Karang Panjang / Ahuru and Pohon Pule.
Crisis Centre Diocese of Amboina - Report no. 124 (21/01/2001) #773 TENSENESS IN WAHAI - Wahai is a small town on the North coast of the island of Ceram.
The residents are mixed christian/muslim and provide shelter for refugees from elsewhere. On
January 16, at 3.00 a.m. four molotov cocktails exploded at various sites in the town. At 10.30
a.m. another bomb exploded at a Secondary School site.
Crisis Centre Diocese of Amboina - Report no. 123 (15/01/2001) #768
On January 9, the Governor as the Responsible for the Civil Emergency State installed a
Committee for Censoring Newsbulletins. Of course this evoked serious disappointment both at
the massmedia themselves and a number of Academici from the Pattimura University (Unpatty)
and the Christian University (UKIM). It was called a return to the Orde Baru of former president
Suharto.
Indonesian Crime in the Moluccas (15/01/2001) #767
There are local roots for the conflict almost everywhere in the Moluccas, but the dominant
cause is a Muslim militia, the Laskar Jihad, from outside the region. It arrived from Java in May
2000. It says it has 3,000 well-armed and trained fighters in the Moluccas. Jaffar Umar Thalib,
the group's leader, has vowed to remove all Christians and has had the apparent support of
factions in the Indonesian military. He is not in hiding. He regularly takes commercial flights
between Java and Ambon, the capital of Maluku Province. He gives occasional interviews to
reporters. The government, the military and the police have not tried to stop him.
Crisis Centre Diocese of Amboina - Report no. 122 (12/01/2001) #761 ANOTHER MISINFORMATION - Via laskarjihad@mailandnews.com, Forum Komunikasi Ahlus
Sunnah wal Jama ah at Yogyakarta on January 8 informs its readers that: "The christians
aspiration to establish an independent nation, separated from the Republic of Indonesia, is
more and more evidents On Saturday January 6, RMS posters and flags were placed along the
streets and at civilians houses -This was done at all christian sites" - Reading this, we are just
baffled. No muslim dares to come into christian neighbourhoods or villages. So who is
sending this nonsense to Yogyakarta?
Crisis Centre Diocese of Amboina - Report no. 121 (09/01/2001) #753 MISINFORMATION - Via laskarjihad@mailandnews.com, Forum Komunikasi Ahlus Sunnah
wal Jama'ah in Yogyakarta on January 6 informs its readers that: .... - Reading this message,
we would advise the Laskar Jihad Information Centre in Yogyakarta to check carefully on the
facts. There is no village of Air Salobar. Air Salobar is a neighbourhood at the west end of
Ambon town. And: all of its residents are christians. Since no local newsmedia mentioned an
incident of this kind, we went there ourselves to check out. The people of Air Salobar were
astonished to learn about this piece of news.
Crisis Centre Diocese of Amboina - Report no. 120 (05/01/2001) #745 One of the victims, Konstantinus Idi, now a refugee in Ambon, retorts in today’s “Siwalima”
that Abdullah Wattimena’s statement is totally untrue. Konstantinus reports that since
September 2000, muslim delegates were coming to them: Jakaria Esserey from Sumelang,
Kasim Rumakur from Rumadurun, Ali Rumakur, chief of the village of Ampera and several
others, telling them that they should convert to islam. If not, the jihads would come and destroy
their villages. Christians refused, resulting in them being attacked near the end of November.
Crisis Centre Diocese of Amboina - Report no. 119 (05/01/2001) #744
On the same occasion the governor expressed his concern on what is happening at the islands
of Kesui and Teor. He confirmed that within short for the fourth and maybe last time a team will
be sent to both islands for investigation and (if needed) evacuation. He said very probably he
himself would also take part in this mission. Meanwhile the bishop of Amboina, Monseigneur
P.C. Mandagi MSC, too, has expressed his intention to join this expedition,
Terror Used to Convert Christians in Maluku (02/01/2001) #735
Church investigators have detailed a catalogue of horrors perpetrated on Christians by Islamic
militias in the Maluku Islands. Hundreds of circumcisions were carried out with a single razor
blade, they said, causing heavy bleeding and infection. Some women were subject to genital
mutilation. Victims were sent into the sea for "disinfection".
Crisis Centre Diocese of Amboina Report no. 118 (02/01/20001) #734 START OF THE UNREST - For whatever reason, on November 23-26, christians of the island of
Kesui, a tiny island between the eastern tip of Ceram and the Kei Islands, unexpectedly were
attacked by joined muslim jihad militias, mainly from the neighbouring islands of Geser and
Gorong. The about 2000-3000 assailants attacked and burned each day a different village: Utta,
Karlomin, Wunin and Tanasoa. At least 9 residents, most of them from Karlomin, were killed.