CNN, Sunday, May 2, 2004 Posted: 0647 GMT (1447 HKT)
Ambon activist's family arrested
[PHOTO: Ambon citizens pass a burnt-out church as they relocate to safer territory.]
JAKARTA, Indonesia (Reuters) -- Indonesian police have arrested the wife and
daughters of a Christian separatist leader in the eastern city of Ambon, folloowing
days of religious fighting there, officials said on Sunday.
Ambon city mayor, Jopie Papilaya, said police arrested the wife of Alex Manuputty --
currently living overseas -- as well as his two daughters, late on Saturday.
"Police seized some important documents. I can't tell you what they are ... but they
are related to the (recent) conflict," Papilaya told Reuters by telephone from Ambon,
capital of the eastern Maluku islands.
Endro Prasetyo, police spokesman for the Maluku islands, confirmed the arrest but
declined to give further details.
Days of religious fighting between Muslims and Christians in Ambon, about 2,300
kilometers (1,440 miles) east of Jakarta have claimed at least 36 lives and injured 156
people.
The fighting was the worst in two years after Christians and Muslims signed a peace
pact to end three years of bloodshed that killed around 5,000 people.
The latest unrest erupted after people tried to raise the banned flag of a mostly
Christian rebel group, the South Maluku Republic Movement (RMS), headed by
Manuputty.
An Indonesian court sentenced Mannuputty to three years in jail in 2003 for
subversion, but he never served the jail term and has slipped out of the country.
Manuputty's whereabout remains unclear but some local media suggest he is now
living in the United States.
RMS was born in the 1950s with its call for Malukun independence.
Experts on the region have estimated Manuputty's faction at around 100 supporters
spread throughout the island chain.
Residents in Ambon said situation in the port city, some of it in ruins after years of
violence, was calm on Sunday with thousands of Christians flocking to churches
throughout the city to attend masses.
"It's not completely normal yet ... there is still some tension but at least people can
go about doing their activities," Papilaya said.
Indonesia's main separatist hotspots are Aceh province in the country's northwest and
Papua in the remote east.
Some 85 percent of Indonesia's 210 million people are Muslim.
In some eastern parts of Indonesia, however, the Christian and Muslim populations
are about equal in size.
Indonesia's police chief has pledged to disarm Christian separatist fighters.
-Reuters-
© 2004 Cable News Network LP, LLLP.
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