The Jakarta Post, 3/5/2003 6:10:10 PM
Government to lift state of emergency in North Maluku
JAKARTA(JP) The government is to lift a state of civil emergency posed in part of the
Maluku islands since 2000 to curb sectarian violence, Home Affairs Minister Hari
Sabarno said Wednesday.
The emergency status for Maluku and North Maluku provinces was imposed in 2000
after Muslim-Christian fighting broke out in the Maluku capital Ambonin January 1999.
The emergency will be revoked only in North Maluku province because the situation in
Maluku and its capital Ambon "still requires some specialtention," Hari was quoted by
AFP as saying.
"For Maluku province, we will wait until the situation becomes more conducive and
until a new governor is elected there," he told a pressconference.
Hari said his office was preparing the presidential decree that would lift the emergency
status in North Maluku.
More than 5,000 people were killed and half a million driven from their homes in the
Malukus until a shaky truce took hold a year ago.
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