CNSNews, April 26, 2004
Deadly Muslim-Christian Clashes Hit Indonesia's Maluku
By Patrick Goodenough, Pacific Rim Bureau Chief
Pacific Rim Bureau (CNSNews.com) - Up to 12 people have been killed in clashes
between Muslims and Christians in an Indonesian province, after a banned separatist
group marked the anniversary of a short-lived "independent" republic more than half a
century ago.
Reports on Monday said calm had been restored to the Maluku capital, Ambon,
where fighting over the weekend also saw a United Nations building and a church set
alight, and several cars damaged.
Thousands of people died in Christian-Muslim violence in Maluku before a peace
accord was reached more than two years ago.
Sectarian suspicions remain strong, and the violence erupted after members of the
outlawed Maluku Sovereignty Front (FKM) held a parade and displayed the banned
flag of the South Maluku Republic (RMS).
The republic was declared in 1950 in the mostly Christian southern Maluku islands,
while talks were underway in The Hague leading to Indonesian independence from
Dutch rule. In what the separatists say was an illegal annexation, the
newly-independent Indonesia quickly overran the RMS, and its leaders went into exile
in the Netherlands.
Following the fall of the dictator Gen. Suharto in 1998 and subsequent U.N.-sponsored
referendum leading to independence for another part of the archipelago, East Timor,
raising hopes elsewhere in the country for other separatist struggles.
The Maluku republican movement was revived in 2000 under the name FKM.
The FKM pressed for sovereignty, but also said it sought to protect Christians from
violence which erupted in Maluku in 1999 and became significantly worse after the
arrival of fighters from a radical Java-based militia, Laskar Jihad.
Although the FKM is predominantly Christian, many Christians in Maluku do not
support it, regarding its actions as provocative.
Sunday's violence occurred on the day the FKM was marking the 54th anniversary of
the RMS republic.
Catholic priest Cornelius Bohm of the Ambon Crisis Center said at least 10 people
had been killed and around 60 wounded in clashes between Christians and Muslims.
He said Christians from one affected area in Ambon had fled the area amid a "full
scale attack," finding themselves defenseless and with "no security forces on the
spot."
Eyewitnesses said those killed had been shot or hacked to death.
Bohm said some people had apparently been infuriated by "the provocative behavior
and hoisting of numerous RMS flags."
Earlier, the police had taken down 51 such flags, he said, and groups of RMS
supporters and opponents had thrown stones at each other.
Police had detained about 20 people, including FKM secretary-general Mozes
Tuanakotta, and imposed a curfew after 6pm.
Tuanakotta is the most visible FKM figure on the ground since the group's leader,
Alex Manuputty, was arrested and convicted of treason last year. Released pending
an appeal to the Supreme Court, he fled to the United States.
The Indonesian military warned earlier that anyone attempting to mark the RMS
anniversary would be arrested and charged.
The carnage that wracked Maluku and another province with a sizeable Christian
population, Sulawesi, largely ended when peace accords were negotiated in the two
areas in 2002 and 2001 respectively, although violence has erupted sporadically since
then.
Laskar Jihad announced it was disbanding in late 2002.
All original CNSNews.com material, copyright 1998-2004 Cybercast News
Service.
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