AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, Saturday April 20, 2002 2:42 PM
Foreign journalists, NGOs banned from Indonesia's restive
Maluku
JAKARTA, April 20 (AFP) - Foreign journalists and non-governmental organizations
have been banned from entering Indonesia's strife-torn Maluku province for 20 days, an
official said Saturday.
Governor Saleh Latuconsina ordered the ban to run from April 10 to April 30, said a
member of the governor's staff, who identified himself only as Rudi.
The directive was issued to "anticipate all forms of negative outcome from visits by
foreigners to Maluku ahead of the anniversary of the pro-independence Republic of
South Maluku (RMS)" on April 25, Rudi said.
The RMS was established in 1950 by people loyal to Dutch colonial rule who staged a
revolt against newly-independent Indonesia.
The rebellion was finally quashed but RMS activists, mainly in the Netherlands,
launched a campaign for international recognition.
On Thursday Maluku police detained the chairman of the pro-independence Maluku
Sovereignty Front -- an Ambon-based representative of RMS -- for planning to raise
the group's flag on the April 25 anniversary.
The ban was also aimed at maintaining security in restive Maluku, Rudi told AFP by
telephone from the provincial capital of Ambon.
On April 3 a bomb in Ambon city killed at least four people and injured dozens,
triggering the later burning of the governor's office by angry mobs.
The governor has alleged the blast was part of an attempt to sabotage a peace
agreement in February between local Christians and Muslims, who had been warring
for three years.
The clashes left more than 5,000 dead and a trail of destruction.
More than 80 percent of Indonesia's 214 million people are Muslims but in some
eastern regions, including the Malukus, Christians make up about half the population.
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