Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS), JRS Dispatches No. 112 17 May 2002
Extremists Threatening Peace On Moluccan Islands, Indonesia
The fragile peace agreement reached last February between Muslim and Christian
leaders on the Moluccan Islands (Indonesia) has been severely shaken by a number
of recent events. As reported in the last issue of Dispatches, 12 Christians, mainly
women and children, were brutally murdered by a Muslim mob on 28 April, when their
village (Soya) was attacked in the dead of night. To make matters worse for the
surviving inhabitants of Soya, the mob that attacked the village left in their wake a
number of land mines in the surrounding area, one of which exploded, seriously
injuring a local man in the hand. The attack was the most serious breach to date of
the February cease-fire agreement, a deal that was intended to put an end to three
years of sectarian conflict that has resulted in thousands of killings and the
displacement of hundreds of thousands of people.
Following the massacre, Jafar Umar Thalib, the leader of the extremist organisation
Laskar Jihad, was arrested and detained by police on 4 May. Jafar had called on all
Muslims to wage a renewed war against the Christian separatists prior to the attack
on the village of Soya. Local sources report that as soon as Jafar's arrest became
known in the capital, Ambon, large groups of Muslims were seen in angry mood,
moving threateningly towards Christian neighbourhoods. Bombs and gunfire could be
heard, and in the violence one person was killed and more than a dozen injured. On
12 May, a soldier was seriously wounded by a grenade blast, following a confrontation
between the army and a group of Muslims. The following day a young man was shot
dead by the army, reportedly for failing to surrender a bomb that he was carrying.
There have also been reports of a number of death threats made against members of
the Muslim delegation to the peace agreement, signed last February. These threats
have apparently been made by extremists from the Muslim community, who are
opposed to the peace process.
JRS in Ambon reports that with the recent incidents of violence, the displaced people
have become more fearful of returning home, in particular those who hail from Buru
Island. There are about 150 displaced families desiring to return home to North-West
Buru; however, the current fragile and unstable environment has made their future
increasingly uncertain.
JRS DISPATCHES is from the International Office of Jesuit Refugee Service, CP
6139, 00195 Roma Prati, Italy. Tel: +39-06 689.77.391; Fax: +39-06 687.92.83;
Email: dispatches@jesref.org; JRS on-line: http://www.jesref.org; Publisher: Lluís
Magriñà SJ; Editor: Hugh Delaney; Translation: Ignacio Echaniz(Spanish), Edith
Castel (French), Centro Astalli/JRS Italy (Italian).
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