Guardian [UK], Thursday April 29, 2004 8:16 AM
Hatred, Mistrust Reigns in Indonesia City
By CHRIS BRUMMITT, Associated Press Writer
AMBON, Indonesia (AP) - Zeth Supusepa, an Indonesian Christian, is in no mood for
forgiveness as he explains how suspected Muslim attackers hurled a bomb at him
outside a church in the eastern city of Ambon.
"Muslims have lost their right to worship God,'' the 30-year-old says, wincing while a
nurse removes shrapnel from his feet and hands. "They are burning places of worship.
From now on, there will be no more dialogue.''
Across the city, Islamic fighters armed with long swords vow to avenge the deaths of
fellow Muslims allegedly shot by Christian snipers.
Five days of shootings, bombings and mob attacks have killed 36 people in Ambon,
and raised fears of a return to the religious war in the Maluku islands that killed 9,000
people between 1999 and 2001.
The violence has again riven a city once considered a model of religious harmony.
Unlike most of mainly Muslim Indonesia, the Malukus' 2 million people are evenly
divided between Muslims and Christians.
The two sides are again afraid to meet each other, their hatred and mistrust growing
amid allegations of the others' brutality.
These days, no Muslim dares to cross into the Christian, or "red'' areas, of the city of
the 350,000 people. The "white,'' or Muslim section, is similarly out of bounds for
Christians.
On Wednesday, two people were killed and a church was torched in fighting in areas
that straddle the two districts. Despite the continuing violence, authorities claimed
that security was improving.
Being caught in the wrong place can be deadly. On Monday night, a ferry carrying
Christians from Jakarta docked in a Muslim part of Ambon, unaware of the danger
having been at sea since before the latest round of violence began.
A gang of men armed with swords and rocks attacked the group, killing one and
wounding at least 28, including a 4-year-old girl, witnesses said.
Sunday's clashes began after the island's small separatist Christian group paraded
through the city center - an act seen as a provocation by Muslims.
Communal tensions have worsened in recent decades with an influx of Muslims from
elsewhere in Indonesia. And Islamic radicals have been trying to whip up Muslim
fervor in reaction to the global war on terrorist groups.
The earlier conflict here galvanized militant Muslims across Indonesia, and it also
attracted Islamic fighters from around Southeast Asia and from the Middle East.
Muslims maintain that their fight is against the separatists movement, tiny compared
to the insurgencies in the independence-minded provinces of Aceh and Papua, the
main trouble spots in the sprawling Indonesian archipelago.
Since the 2001 conflict ended after a government sponsored peace deal, the
international community has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on projects to
promote reconciliation between the two sides.
A U.N.-funded school that taught Muslim and Christian children was one of the first
buildings to be burned when the clashes broke out last Sunday. Soon after, a mob
torched the offices housing all the region's U.N. agencies.
"It's all very sad,'' said Caroline Tupamahu, project manager for the U.N. Development
Project in Ambon. "It will take a long time to recover now the people don't trust each
other anymore.''
Like other U.N. staffers in the city, she was evacuated Wednesday.
Until Sunday, public buses ran between the two districts. Christians sold fish and
vegetables to Muslims in a packed market in the center of the city. The seaside city's
one Western-style mall was full of people from both faiths.
The only place where the two communities can now meet is a small stretch of road
between the Muslim and Christian section of the city. It is considered safe because
members of military families live there.
Covering both sides of the story is all but impossible for local journalists. The police
station and the major government officers are in Christian parts of town, making official
comment hard to find for Muslim reporters.
A foreign-funded media center in what used to be the neutral part of town, where
journalists from both faiths once met and worked on stories together, barely operates.
The hotel that housed it was set alight during the troubles.
Moren, a Christian housewife in the city, says she has some Muslim friends. But after
seeing a mob set her church alight in Sunday's fighting she now says the "days (of
peace) are over.''
"Now its them and us,'' the mother of two said.
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004
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