South China Morning Post, Tuesday, August 27, 2002
INDONESIA
Official history challenged in treason trial
CHRIS McCALL in Jakarta
Two Malukans accused of promoting separatism yesterday turned Indonesia's official
account of its history on its head in a formal objection to their treason trial.
They also said more than 10,000 people had died in Maluku's religious conflict since
January 1999, considerably more than official figures.
Alex Manuputty, 54, and Semmy Waileruny, 45, face up to 20 years in jail over four
charges, including two of treason. They are respectively head and legal head of the
Maluku Sovereignty Front (FKM), which has urged the United Nations to intervene to
end the conflict.
Shouts of Mena Muria rang around the court as the two men arrived, making a peace
sign. The Ambonese phrase for "ready up front" was traditionally used by canoe
crews.
Manuputty, a flamboyant Ambon doctor, wore a white suit. His long hair was tied
back and he wore a red and white headband.
He spent two hours describing why the court could not hear the case, citing treaties
from the decade after World War II and illustrating his arguments with a
two-metre-high flow chart and a lecturer's pointer. The three judges and prosecutors
clearly struggled as they pored over copies of the giant sheet.
"The people of South Maluku have the right to the implementation of their own choice
because that right was given to them by history and was confirmed in treaties
between the Dutch government and Indonesia, and was accepted by the United
Nations," Manuputty said, quoting what he said were conclusions of international legal
experts.
He called on the UN to take over the government temporarily.
"The United Nations must keep watch on the situation in Maluku as an area which
does not have its own government," he said.
The charges relate to demonstrations in Ambon around April 25, when FKM
supporters commemorated the founding of the former Republic of the South Moluccas
(RMS) by flying its flag. They argue that the court has no authority to try them and
that even if it did, the charges are groundless.
FKM argues that under international law, the Republic of Indonesia has never held
sovereignty over Maluku or most of the other regions it controls. They say the RMS
was a legal government that once sat in the UN and was illegally brought down.
Manuputty called on other countries to inform Indonesia that they did not recognise its
sovereignty over Maluku.
The Republic of Indonesia was declared in Jakarta on August 17, 1945, as the Allies
prepared to land in Java. A long war of independence followed as the Dutch tried to
regain control.
The Dutch set up nominally independent states, including the State of East Indonesia,
which included Maluku. But in late 1949 the Dutch agreed to grant full independence
to a United States of Indonesia, in a federal system.
Within months, founding president Sukarno reneged, declaring a "unitary state",
which Indonesia remains.
Largely Christian Ambon had provided many soldiers to the Dutch military. As it
became clear that the federation would not last, the RMS was declared on April 25,
1950. It was defeated by Indonesia within a few years on Ambon, although it held out
on the island of Seram until 1963.
Islamic militia leader Jafar Umar Thalib, also on trial over subversion and incitement, is
due in court again on Thursday.
Copyright © 2002. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights
reserved.
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