REUTERS, Monday August 19, 2002 8:15 AM ET
Indonesia charges Christian leader with subversion
JAKARTA (Reuters) - Indonesian prosecutors on Monday charged the leader of a
Christian faction in the Moluccas with subversion for trying to set up an independent
state in the ravaged islands.
Alex Manuputty leads a faction of the little-known separatist movement, the South
Moluccas Republic, and a group local Muslims say declared war on them during three
years of religious violence that killed thousands before a peace deal this year.
"The purpose of the defendant's actions were for a geographical separation of the
southern part of the Moluccas from Indonesia," state prosecutor Herman Koedoeboen
told the North Jakarta District Court.
"This is a crime against the security of the state," he said. Subversion carries a
maximum penalty of life imprisonment.
Manuputty, who has denied all wrongdoing, was arrested in April shortly before his
followers planned to raise an independence flag in Ambon, the main city of the
Moluccas which lies some 2,300 km (1,400 miles) east of Jakarta.
Analysts estimate Manuputty's faction has around 100 supporters spread throughout
the island chain, some of whom travelled to the court for the hearing.
"We're always right. The South Moluccas Republic is legitimate everywhere," a
relaxed-looking Manuputty, wearing his trademark red bandana, told reporters after
the hearing.
This latest trial over religious killings in the once-idyllic spice islands follows the
appearance in court last week of Jafar Umar Thalib, leader of the most widely known
Muslim militant group, Laskar Jihad.
Prosecutors accused him of inciting hatred after he delivered a speech, ostensibly in
response to Manuputty, in front of a mosque which called for war against the South
Moluccas Republic and spurned reconciliation.
Thalib, who also denied all charges of wrongdoing, faces a maximum penalty of seven
years in jail if convicted.
Police detained him in May for the speech, which was also broadcast on local radio
throughout the Moluccas, where more than 5,000 have died in clashes between
Muslims and Christians since 1999.
Laskar Jihad sent thousands of fighters to the Moluccas in mid-2000, heightening
tension in the islands. Most violence has halted since a peace deal was agreed earlier
this year.
Some 85 percent of Indonesia's 210 million people are Muslims but only a tiny fraction
are radical. Christians share equal numbers in some eastern areas of the sprawling
archipelago.
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