The Courier-Mail [Australia], 29 April 2004
Clerics fear Maluku could explode
Marianne Kearney in Jakarta
THIS week's bloodshed in Indonesia's strife-torn Maluku province could escalate
dramatically, Muslim leaders warned last night.
They said it could become as bad as three years ago when thousands were killed.
Muslim Clerics Council secretary Nasir Rahawarin said: "The situation is really, really
critical. I'm afraid that this is going to continue. The security forces are not reacting
quickly enough."
His prediction came as gunshots echoed throughout Ambon, the provincial capital,
with homemade bombs exploding in several suburbs.
"The whole night there was bombing and shooting," Amboina Crisis Centre priest
Pastor Cornelis Bohm said. Two churches have been torched in the last 24 hours,
snipers have been operating throughout the city and at least 26 people are dead and
more than 200 injured.
Mr Rahawarin said if security forces failed to control the violence it could spread, with
hardliners from both sides forming well-armed militia just as they did three years ago.
"There are many youths who have no established way of living, they have no work, no
money and it is very easy to mobilise them," he said.
Between 1999 and 2002 at least 9000 people were killed and half a million displaced.
In the past, the police sided with Christian militia while the military often backed
Muslim groups, supplying them with weapons and training.
The conflict often became a business for members of the security forces and gangs
who charged for their protection services, or the rent of weapons.
As Ambonese feared a return to the conflict of 2001, the leader of the Laskar Jihad,
Jaffar Umar Thalib, threatened to send his militia force back to Maluku.
"We don't need to prepare these forces because they are like my students and they
have already operated in the field (in Maluku) for two years," Thalib warned at a press
conference in Jakarta on Tuesday.
Four years ago, the military-trained Laskar Jihad joined with other militant groups from
across South-East Asia and inflamed the conflict first in Ambon and then in North
Maluku, killing thousands.
Many of the militants involved in the Bali bombing became radicalised after fighting in
Maluku.
Although fighting has flared quickly in Ambon, both Muslim and Christian leaders say
the conflict was ignited by a small number of radicals from both sides, and that most
people in this war-racked city want peace.
"The South Moluccas Republican Movement (RMS) are only 200 to 300 people, they
are not all over Ambon. This is a very extreme group of Christians who want Christian
sovereignty," Pastor Bohm said.
Indonesia's top security minister, Hari Sabarno, arrived in Ambon for a briefing with
police and military chiefs and to assess the situation for himself.
The Australian embassy in Jakarta yesterday issued a bulletin warning travellers to
avoid the Malukus.
Additional reporting Australian Associated Press
© Queensland Newspapers
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