MISNA - Missionary Service News Agency, 10/11/2003 10:00
Indonesia
Christian Separatist Leaders Released
Church/Religious Affairs, Brief
Christian separatist leaders Alex Manuputty and Semmy Waeleruny, active in the
Indonesian archipelago of the Moluccas, have been released from prison in Jakarta
following the expiry of the maximum term of remand detention. The news comes from
the Crisis Centre in the Catholic diocese of Ambon.
The men are leaders of FKM (South Moluccas Independence Movement), a small
organisation which does not have the backing of the local Church, which is calling for
the creation of an autonomous state on the southern Moluccas and asking for a
referendum on independence along the lines of the one held in East Timor on 30
August 1999.
In the trial against Manuputty and Waeleruny at North Jakarta district court, on 19
December 2002 the prosecution requested five years' imprisonment for unlawful
activities, in particular for hoisting the RMS (Republik Maluku Selatan, Republic of
Southern Moluccas) flag in Ambon without authorisation on 25 April of that year.
However, the maximum term of remand detention has now elapsed and the two men
have been released. In another trial, Manuputty and Waeleruny were sentenced to
three years' imprisonment for subversion in March 2003.
FKM is accused by Muslims of fuelling the inter-religious clashes in the Moluccas
from January 1999 to spring 2002. For their part, Christians accuse the Islamic
extremists of 'Laskar Jihad', whose leader Ja'afar Umar Thalib was first incriminated
and then acquitted on 30 January of this year. [CO]
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