The Jakarta Post, April 30, 2002
Military emergency in Maluku 'depends on conditions on the field'
JAKARTA (JP): Indonesian Military (TNI) chief Adm. Widodo A.S. asserted on
Monday that the plan to impose a military state of emergency in strife-torn Maluku
would be based on objective conditions on the field, a report said.
Speaking at Halim Perdanakusuma Air Base in East Jakarta after the installment of
the new Air Force chief of staff, Vice Marshal Chappy Hakim, who replaced Marshal
Hanafie Asnan, Adm. Widodo said that the current civil emergency administration in
Maluku province had been doing its job as regulated by law.
Meanwhile, Army Chief of Staff Gen. Endriartono Sutarto also said on Monday that
TNI's function in Maluku was to help maintain peace and order in the restive province.
"If the public wants TNI to take firm measures in handling the Maluku conflict, there
must be adequate legal and political grounds to do so," Endriartono said.
Over three years of bloody communal and religious conflicts in Maluku and North
Maluku provinces have claimed the lives of 9,000 and drove some 500,00 people from
their homes.
In the latest round of violence, at least 12 people were killed when a group of masked
people attacked predominantly Christian Soya village, some 12 kilometers from
Ambon, the capital of Maluku, on Sunday. Twenty-four houses and a church were
burned in the melee
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