HTML pages designed & maintained by Alifuru67 Copyright © 1999/2000 - 1364283024 & 1367286044		Want to Help? CRISIS CENTRE DIOCESE OF AMBOINA Jalan Pattimura 32 - Ambon 97124 - Indonesia Tel 0062 (0)911 342195 Fax 0062 (0)911 355337 E-mail: compro@ambon.wasantara.net.id THE SITUATION IN AMBON / MOLUCCAS Report no. 149 1. NEW CHAIRPERSON GPM SYNOD On March 15, the last day of the Synodal Conference of the Moluccas Protestant Church (GPM), the Synod Chairman for the next period (2001-2005) was elected. The chosen one to replace Pendeta Sammy Titaley, chairman during the period 1996-2000 was Pendeta Dr. I.W.J. Hendriks. As the Secretary General was elected Pendeta S.J. (Buce) Mailoa. Majority of the votes for the offices of Vice Chairpersons I & II went to Pendeta L.Lohy and Pendeta H.S.Leleury. General opinion, also from the side of the catholics and the moslems, was in favour of the elected persons. 2. VICTIM IN WANATH Wanath is a moslem hamlet not far from the larage Moslem village of Hitu on the North coast of the island of Ambon. The executive Secretary of the moslem Majelis Ulama Indonesia (MUI), Malik Selang, declared to Suara Maluku newspaper that in the evening of March 15 a wedding took place in Wanath, during which there arose a conflict between several youths. This resulted in the death of one young man, being stabbed. Jakarta based Newspaper Kompas mentions his name as Nyon Nunlehu, resident of Hitu. Hitu was enraged and came to attack Wanath. They burned down several houses, but there was no mentioning of any further casualties. The Wanath residents fled to the military quarters at Waiheru to the south, on the northern coast of the bay. This happening mikght be seen as an indication of rapidly deteriorating sense of morality: killing and burning have become the common way of quarreling and taking revenge. 3. CORRECTING PERCEPTION ON THE AGAS On March 14 a USA based newspaper published an article on child warriors in the Moluccas, which was quoted also on several websites. It was titled: My job is to throw bombs and burn houses, Moluccan boy says / Christian and Moslem youths are on front lines of a deadly conflict both sides call a holy war . Investigation on this point among others was done at the half-finished Catholic cathedral church (which happens also to be the quarters of our Crisis Centre). The cathedral parish of St.Francis Xavier has indeed 42 youths in protection, the two youngest of whom are thirteen years of age. There are quite a few among them who have killed people and burned houses. Most of them have lost close family members: parents or/and siblings. Most of them have nowhere to go. Most of them are protestants. Because of their young age and small stature, they are called Agas (Agas is a tiny kind of fly which can bite people mercilessly). Both parish priests ensure that these boys are taken care of well: they are sent to school and they get guidance to prepare them for normal life. But none these priests prayed and gave them [blessed] water to drink in order to expell their bad feelings after burning houses and killing people like is written in the article. We were asked questions on this point by several e-mailers, so we want to stress that no such thing ever happened. C.J.Böhm MSc, Secretary of Crisis Centre Diocese of Amboina Received via e-mail from : Crisis Centre Diocese of Amboina Copyright © 1999-2001  - Ambon Berdarah On-Line * http://www.go.to/ambon HTML pages designed and maintained by Alifuru67 * http://www.oocities.org/maluku67 Send your comments to alifuru67@egroups.com