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Diplomats study reconstruction of riot-torn Malukus
South China Morning Post Thursday, February 22, 2001 - Middle Eastern and European diplomats are visiting the Maluku Islands to assess the security situation and seek ways to fund reconstruction of communities riven by more than two years of inter-religious fighting.
The visit, led by Indonesia's Minister for Settlement and Regional Infrastructure, Erna Witoelar, follows reports of forced conversions and circumcisions inflicted on Christians by militant Muslims in the island chain.
Although the level of fighting has diminished in recent months, tensions remain high, occasional clashes continue and many towns and communities are without basic facilities. Shops and businesses are destroyed, schooling has been disrupted and security forces have so far failed to get rid of the Laskar Jihad, a militant group which sent hundreds of Muslim fighters to the area late last year despite official pledges to stop them.
Their arrival worsened violence which began over economic competition between migrants and indigenous islanders, but became a religious war.
Hundreds of thousands of displaced people are now scattered across the two provinces of Maluku and North Maluku and in nearby provinces.
Foreign governments have been eager to help with reconciliation efforts and reconstruction. But aid experts involved say government proposals have yet to include detailed plans of action. "Erna thinks it's time to begin reconstruction, but the process has been rather slow," said an international aid manager. "By the Government's own criteria, it is time to start in North Maluku with reconstruction work but there is the massive problem of the returnees. It's sensitive."
The problem is that many of those people displaced by fighting are scared to return home when the overall security situation remains unclear. While some of the almost 100,000 Muslim refugees on one northern island, Ternate, are ready to go home to other parts of North Maluku, many of the more than 20,000 Christians camped near Manado, North Sulawesi, remain unwilling to risk a return.
"The main goal is that the Government wants to return the refugees, the displaced persons," a diplomat said. "I've a feeling only lip service is being paid to the return of Christian refugees."
That is why the make-up of the diplomatic party touring the Malukus is important. Representatives of Egypt, Malaysia and Kuwait are on the trip alongside the ambassadors of the Netherlands, Britain and the current European Union president, Sweden.
In a meeting with civil emergency authorities, the delegation heard that the number of residents in Ambon had dropped from 314,400 in 1998 to 265,000 in 1999 after the violence began.
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