The Financial Times [UK], April 25 2002 16:51
asia pacific
Moluccas separatist ceremony ends in violence
By Tom McCawley in Jakarta
A mob torched a half-built church in the war-torn Moluccan islands in Indonesia on
Thursday after a separatist flag-raising ceremony turned violent.
About 1,000 Muslims took to the streets in Ambon, capital of the Moluccas, after
Christian separatists raised flags to commemorate a 1950s independence movement.
Police opened fire to stop the mob burning the Silo church, one of the cities' largest,
injuring several.
"The church was afire, bombs went off throughout the day," said Pastor Bohm, a local
clergyman.
In recent months, an uneasy peace has returned to the 2m-strong Moluccas, whose
population is almost equal numbers of Christians and Muslims.
The clashes yesterday mark a series of incidents that have strained a peace deal
signed in February aimed at ending three years of sectarian violence.
Christian and Muslim groups have been fighting in the Moluccan island chain since
early 1999, leaving more than 6,000 dead and ending centuries of mostly peaceful
co-existence.
Religious violence first broke out seven months after the fall of authoritarian president
Suharto in May 1998, marking the beginning of Indonesia's shaky transition to
democracy. The violence was triggered by a trivial market-place dispute but tensions
suppressed under three decades of authoritarian rule soon emerged.
The Silo church was first set on fire in 1999 and was a big step towards the
destruction of a tradition of tolerance between the religions, known as Pela Gandung.
The local government tried to stop the flag burning yesterday, issuing an order on April
10 banning foreigners from entering the province until the end of the month. Under civil
emergency laws, the governor imposed a news blackout on local media, extended to
this week.
Despite the February peace agreement, sporadic violence has continued this year,
climaxing in a bombing in Ambon on April 3 and the burning of the governor's resident.
Authorities accuse the Christian separatist group, the FKM, linked to the 1950s
Republic of Moluccas independence movement, of stirring the violence.
In turn, FKM members accuse Jakarta of failing to stop 3,000 militant Islamic warriors
from the Laskar Jihad group from entering the province.
The Moluccan conflict has proved to be one of the most intractable facing
governments in Jakarta, some 2,600km to the west. Religious clashes in the
Moluccas strain religious harmony elsewhere in Indonesia, which has the world's
largest Islamic population of 190m and five official religions.
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