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A womans struggle to free family from Muslim captors in the Malukus
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Thursday, December 7 3:04 PM SGT
JAKARTA, Dec 7 (AFP) - Matilda Idi, 41, says she had come far away from Ambon, the capital of Indonesia's riot-torn Maluku islands, to the tiny island of Kasui to seek the release of her husband and five children, held hostage by Muslim fighters.
Matilda, speaking by phone to AFP from Ambon Thursday, said her husband and children were among hundreds of Christian residents who had fled their villages on Kasui to escape a series of attacks by Muslim fighters late last month.
At least eight Christians were killed in the attacks on Kasui, a small island some 400 kilometers (248 miles) east of Ambon island.
The Christian villagers ran into the jungles but ended up seeking refuge in the coastal Muslim village of Tanah Baru because the whole area was surrounded by predominantly-Muslim villages.
Matilda's husband, Matheus Masan said Muslim residents offered to provide protection to them as long as the Christian refugees were willing to convert to Islam.
The refugees, fearing for their lives, agreed to embrace Islam.
"We agreed because we were concerned for the safety of our children," said Masan, a high school teacher in Ambon who was present with his wife during the phone interview.
Dressed in Muslim clothes and caps, the Christians were sworn in as Muslims in a mosque, which was guarded by armed fighters, he said.
Matilda said her husband had gone on holiday to his home village of Karlomin, 10 kilometers (six miles) from Tanah Baru, with their children, the youngest a baby, when the Muslim fighters attacked.
"My husband had spent his leave in his home village because he wanted a break after months of unrest in Ambon but what he got was an even worse disaster," she said.
On hearing the news that her husband and children were held hostage in Tanah Baru, Matilda, escorted by 20 soldiers, travelled by boat from Ambon to the village to seek the release of her loved ones.
She made an appeal to the village chief, security authorities and the Muslim leader, Ibrahim, to help release her husband.
"I would do anything to get my husband and my children back. I even begged, down on my knees, and kissed Ibrahim's feet," she told AFP.
Matilda said Ibrahim, after consulting his followers and being assured by authorities that her husband was a teacher, then agreed to release her husband and children.
"Thanks to the Holy Spirit and his guidance, we are now reunited," she said..
But she said other captives remained in the mosque.
"I don't know about their fate now," Matilda said.
The Maluku islands, previously known as the Spice Islands, have been torn apart by almost two years of Muslim-Christian conflict, leaving more than 4,000 people dead and over half a million refugees.
The sectarian violence was sparked by a dispute between a Christian public transport driver and a Muslim in Ambon city in January 1999 that quickly degenerated into fights between Muslims and Christians and later spread to other islands.
In June, Jakarta imposed a state of civil emergency in the Malukus and the North Malukus but it has so far failed to rein in the violence. Both sides have accused the security forces of taking part in the fighting.
Maluku governor Saleh Latuconsina said last week that some 1,300 militant Muslim reinforcements from Java island were in the islands.
Indonesia has been plagued by unrest since the end of the iron-fisted rule of former president Suharto in May 1998.
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