AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, Monday April 22, 2002 9:57 AM
Detained Maluku separatist leader to face subversion charge:
report
JAKARTA, April 22 (AFP) - A separatist leader in Indonesia's Maluku islands who has
been detained since last week will be charged with subversion, a report quoting police
said Monday.
"This time, he will be charged with breaching article 106 of the criminal code, on
subversion," Maluku's chief police detective Senior Commissioner Johny Tangkudung
was quoted as saying by the Jakarta Post.
The crime carries a maximum life sentence.
Tangkudung said the charge against Alex Manuputty, who was arrested at his home
on Wednesday, was based on preliminary evidence gathered by the police and the
military, the Post reported.
Manuputty, who heads the Maluku Sovereignty Front (FKM), had been planning to
raise the separatist flag of the Republic of South Maluku (RMS) on April 25, the 52nd
anniversary of the declaration of the now outlawed republic.
In 2001, Manuputty was also briefly arrested after he and FKM members and
sympathisers had tried to raise the same flag at his home to mark the anniversary.
Tangkudung said his arrest last year and last week had been based on violation of
regulations imposed by the civil emergency authorities.
"He has violated the ban by the Maluku civil emergency authorities on FKM activities,
had planned to raide the separatist RNS flag and had caused unrest among people in
Ambon and Maluku in general," Tangkudung said.
Maluku, which has seen violent sectarian unrest since January 1999 that has left
more than 5,000 people killed, over 500,000 displaced and widespread destruction,
has been under a state of civil emergency since September 2000.
Under such a state, the government as head of the civil emergency has the right to
order the arrest of people without warrant, disband organisations or crowds, impose
curfews and order the closure of an area to outsiders.
Tangkudung currently leads a joint team of police and military investigators probing
Manuputty.
Since his arrest, some 200 FKM supporters have held daily protests outside the
police headquarters in Ambon to demand his release.
People loyal to Dutch colonial rule declared the RMS in 1950 and staged a revolt
against newly-independent Indonesia.
The rebellion was finally quashed but RMS activists, most of them now living in the
Netherlands, have continued their campaign for international recognition.
The RMS has a predominantly Christian support base.
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.
Copyright © 2001 AFP. All rights reserved.
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