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The Courier-Mail 06/04/01
Diggers' Ambon graves bombed
Chris McCall and Tony Keim
06apr01
A MONUMENT to Australian soldiers beheaded on an Indonesian island in World War II has
been blown up by Muslim militants.
The large cross over the Australian war grave in Ambon city was destroyed last year, said a
United Nations source who visited the site recently.
The cross stood more than 3m high and overlooked the bodies of Australian servicemen who died in bloody fighting against the Japanese and in mass executions after occupation.
RSL Queensland president Ray DeVere last night called the monument desecration "deplorable" and "disrespectful" to the Australian Diggers who valiantly fought and died in the region.
"I, as any other Australian, deplore the desecration of any Australian war grave," Mr DeVere said.
"It's a great shame the reason for the conflict and desecration (of the monument) was caused by a lack of tolerance for (Australia's) religious and cultural beliefs."
It is understood the cross was blown up several months ago because it was a symbol of Christianity, sources in Ambon said.
The action followed the arrival in the city of the Laskar Jihad force of Muslim militants, who are blamed for setting off a new round of violence in Ambon last year after several months of calm.
Laskar Jihad forces have been accused of forcing Christians to convert to Islam in parts of the troubled Maluku islands, circumcising men and women with razor blades.
There have been other reports of destruction of Christian symbols in those areas. Only sketchy details have to date emerged about the destruction of the cross, partly due to the difficulties of getting to the site.
Ambon city has become a dangerous maze of Christian red areas and Muslim white areas.
Members of each religion rarely, if ever, enter the other side's territory.
Many older men on the Christian side worked for the Australians during the war, but the cemetery is in a white area. This makes access all but impossible for local Christians, who would risk their lives by going there.
Indonesian authorities have curtailed access to Ambon by Australian embassy officials.
The latest affront to Australian sensibilities in the region comes despite Australia playing a key political role in the development of Indonesia since it proclaimed independence from Dutch rule in 1945. Australia was the only Western government to support its independence at the time.
In 1995, a security agreement was signed by then prime minister Paul Keating and president Suharto although the bilateral relationship has soured in the past two years over Australia's role in East Timor.
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