CRISIS CENTRE DIOCESE OF AMBOINA
Jalan Pattimura 32 -- Ambon 97124 -- Indonesia
Tel 0062 (0)911 342195 Fax 0062 (0)911 355337
E-mail: crisiscentre01@hotmail.com
Ambon, November 8, 2003
THE SITUATION IN AMBON/MOLUCCAS – Report No. 399
1. ELECTRICITY REFUGEES CUT OFF – The PLN (National Electricity Company)
Ambon faces an enormous deficit, due to much destruction and unpaid electricity bills
during the unrest since January 1999. So the company recently cut off all those who
had not paid their bills for years, including refugees sites. These had not paid because
had never been asked to, supposing the government would see to that. Now they will
not be reconnected to the electricty net unless they pay the enormous accumulated
debts first. No wonder groups of refugees now come and protest at the Governor's
Office, at the Social Department or the Provincial Legislative Council. Their main
complaint is: "The government causes us to go on living as refugees, as the promised
financial help for rebuilding our houses again and again is being put off. Now they
demand us to pay for their neglect". The Diocese of Amboina, too, thus faces a debt
of many millions Rupiahs because sheltering several hundreds of refugees in barracks
and providing living quarters to Brimob police forces without ever paying for electricity.
Besides having to live in small and crowded quarters, the refugees' suffering is
worsened now by having to live in darkness.
2. PERSISTING RUMOURS – Rumours of renewed conflict have not abated yet. In
this context the police has introduced on local TV a daily report on any criminal acts
being perpetrated in Ambon and on surrounding islands and its being dealt with by the
police, in order to clarify on each act of criminality, disconnecting it with any
interreligious strife. Besides, nocturnal patrol by the police is being intensified,
especially in and around the city of Ambon.
A foreign tourist told us recently he found the atmosphere in Ambon having
significantly changed for the worse compared to the time before the conflict erupted:
people are more bad-mannered, quickly reacting in a violent way when offended or
confronted with injustice. We can provide a sample of this:
Last Tuesday, November 4th, a merchant of Batumerah, Ambon, named Husni
missed 6 million rupiahs and 57 grams of gold. A traditional telepathist pointed to a
Syaiful Ibrahim (17) as the thief, whereupon the police came and arrested Syaiful. A
witness declared that he saw the six policemen beating him up and pushing him onto
their vehicle. Further mistreatment by the police resulted in the death of the unlucky
boy. Upon learning this sad news, people in Batumerah started to scold the police;
Husni could all but avoid his shop being burned down by the mass. Police chief
Bambang Sutrisno, however, told a quite different story on TV: according to the
information he had got, it was the mass that had beaten up Syaiful. Investigation is
now taking place on the 14 police personnel involved and on three local witnesses.
C.J.Böhm msc,
Crisis Centre Diocese of Amboina |
