REUTERS, Tue May 14, 2002 7:16 AM ET
Indonesia Cautious Over Muslim Militant Eviction
By Achmad Sukarsono
JAKARTA (Reuters) - Indonesian police were trying to come up with a way to evict a
hardline Muslim group from the strife-torn Moluccas Tuesday.
National Police Chief General Dai Bachtiar said the technicalities of implementing a
central government order evicting the militant Laskar Jihad from the famed spice
islands remained under debate.
"Principally, we will have them sent home. It will be formulated technically by the
security forces and (local authorities). We will find a way out," he told a news
conference.
Jakarta has said getting rid of Laskar Jihad, as well as disbanding a radical Christian
faction, would be key in halting the religious clashes in the Moluccas, once best
known for their nutmeg, cinnamon and cloves.
The Java-based Laskar Jihad sent thousands of armed men to the Moluccas about
two years ago, one year after Muslim-Christian battles erupted on the spice islands.
More than 5,000 people have been killed in the religious conflict.
Separately, Indonesian Vice President Hamzah Haz, who leads the archipelago
nation's largest Muslim political party, said expelling Laskar Jihad troops "should be
done after tranquility comes back to the people there and after there's no more
lingering problems."
He also said separating Laskar Jihad group members who have blended into the
Muslim community in the Moluccas would be hard.
Haz, who is not always in step with Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri's
policies, told a Laskar Jihad convention Monday that their troops should leave only
after the authorities flush out the Christian group supporting the decades-old South
Moluccas Republic separatist movement, local newspapers reported.
Haz became the focus of a controversy after he visited detained Laskar Jihad
commander Jafar Umar Thalib. The visit sparked criticism that he was interfering in
the legal process.
Police arrested Thalib Saturday for allegedly inciting violence in the Moluccan capital
Ambon where at least 12 people in a Christian area were killed in a recent raid by
unidentified attackers.
Indonesia is the world's most populous Muslim nation, with more than 85 percent of
its 210 million people following the faith, but in certain areas like the Moluccas,
Christians make up about half the population.
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