LAKSAMANA.Net, May 2, 2004 11:16 PM
Review - Regions: Ambon Violence Continues
Laksamana.Net - Muslims and Christians equipped with homemade bombs and
military-issue weapons clashed again on Friday (30/4/04) in Ambon, the provincial
capital of the Maluku islands, leaving at least 19 injured and scores of houses in
flames.
Arson, gunfire and explosions rocked the battle-scarred city, paralyzing the provincial
administration.
It was the sixth straight day of clashes that claimed 37 lives and effectively destroyed
the 2002 peace accord signed by Muslim and Christian leaders. A full-scale
Muslim-Christian war in 1999 resulted in the deaths of at least 6,000 people.
Pope John Paul II called on Saturday (1/5/04) for public order to be quickly restored in
Ambon. In a letter to the bishop of Ambon sent by the Vatican secretary of state,
John Paul said he was praying for those who had died and those who were mourning
for them.
Early Friday, Muslim mobs torched at least 30 houses close to a Protestant church,
witnesses said. Most of the homes were empty after their owners had fled when the
clashes began Sunday.
Fifteen Muslims were taken to the city's Al-Fatah hospital with injuries sustained in
the fighting, medical officials there said.
Hundreds of reinforcement troops and police have been deployed to the city, but have
so far had little effect on the fighting, which has resulted in large areas of segregation
between Muslims and Christians.
Though the provincial administration's activities came to a grinding halt, several
schools remained open as did many shops across the city, but they too were
segregated.
The clashes were triggered after the island's small, mostly separatist Christian
Maluku Sovereignty Front (FKM) group paraded through the city center to mark the
54th anniversary of the ill-fated proclamation of the Republic of Maluku as a separate
state from the new nation of Indonesia. The march turned violent when mainly
Christian marchers and mainly Muslim onlookers pelted each other with rocks and
abuse.
The military (TNI) said it was deploying more intelligence officers and soldiers in
coordination with police to hunt down snipers blamed for fueling terror among civilians
in Ambon.
TNI spokesman Maj. Gen. Sjafrie Sjamsuddin said Wednesday (28/4/04) military chief
Gen. Endriartono Sutarto had ordered troops to shoot snipers on sight.
The snipers are thought to be equipped with automatic rifles fabricated by arms
companies such as Bandung-based PT Pindad or others belonging to foreign
countries, Sjafrie said.
He said snipers may have used guns stolen from a police armory in Tantui on June,
21, 2000, where around 300 of the total 893 weapons and 800,000 bullets were taken
in an attack by unidentified people.
"The TNI is also prepared to guard areas outside Ambon to prevent more violence from
spreading, and has sent reinforcement troops from the 413rd Infantry Battalion based
in East Java along with four companies of paramilitary Mobile Brigade (Brimob)
police," he added.
Separately Pattimura military chief Maj. Gen. Syarifudin and Maluku Police chief Brig,
Gen. Bambang Sutrisno vowed to take harsh action against their personnel found to
be involved in the renewed fighting.
Earlier, witnesses were quoted as saying they saw soldiers involved in the torching of
the Nazareth Church.
Sutrisno said the police would deploy Brimob officers to isolate the border area
between the hamlets of Waringin and Tanah Lapang Kecil (Talake), which are near
Kudamati, a stronghold of FKM separatists.
FKM claims genocide
The FKM has urged the Netherlands, the former colonizer of the Malukus, to send its
troops and encourage international intervention to restore law and order and end what
it called "genocide".
Williem Palemona, one of the group's leaders, told the press in Holland Tuesday he
had met with officials of the Dutch government to update them on the situation in the
Malukus and seek their assistance.
In statements released to the media, he argued that without international intervention
the South Moluccas Republic (RMS) would be 'history'.
The FKM is fighting for the independence of the Southern Malukus region, which they
call the RMS.
Although most experts say RMS has a membership of just 200 to 300, Christians are
increasingly characterized as separatists. Ambon's Bishop Mandagi said a very
dangerous development was how Christians, who make up half Ambon's population,
were now being portrayed as supporters of RMS and independence.
A military and police force on Friday (30/4/04) searched the home of FKM leader Alex
Manuputty in Kudamati, Nusaniwe sub-district, for weapons and activists. His wife
and an unidentified female were detained for questioning. Manuputty himself fled to
the United States late last year.
Trouble brewing with Laskar Jihad
The call for the Dutch to assist the Christians in the Malukus has forced the dormant
Laskar Jihad militant group to reconstitute an army of Muslim volunteers to re-enter
the area and attempt to put an end to the conflict.
The military said it would stop Islamic militant fighters from traveling to Ambon as they
did in the previous conflict but four extremist groups say they have thousands of
Muslim men ready to go to Ambon to protect the Islamic community there.
Jafar Umar Thalib, the leader of Laskar Jihad, says he is waiting to assess the
situation to see how many people he finally sends to Ambon, but says he has as
many as 10,000 on standby.
The group, which is opposed to any attempt to declare a Christian state in Southern
Malukus, threatened Tuesday (27/4/04) to send its fighters back to Ambon to defend
the Muslims if Jakarta fails to bring peace to the islands.
Laskar Jihad disbanded its paramilitary arm in 2002 after the intervention of Jakarta in
the conflict but still has outposts in Maluku, although its personnel are unarmed and
are said to have been peaceful since 2002.
Thalib said in a press conference in Jakarta that his movement was prepared to go
back to the Islands and that he was closely monitoring the situation. The government
had also promised Muslims that all attempts to create an independent Maluku would
be crushed by the military, he said.
Thalib criticized the military for its late intervention in the fighting, adding that he was
certain the government would never allow his men back in Ambon.
"However, we will send them if the situation deteriorates, with or without the consent
of the government, just as we did in 2002," Thalib said.
Laskar Jihad believes some foreign forces, including Australia and the Netherlands,
have a common interest in breaking up Maluku from Indonesia to create an entirely
Christian state in the middle of the Indonesia archipelago.
Religious leaders on Tuesday (27/4/04) also accused what they called "third parties"
of inciting the renewed violence.
Muslims, Protestant, Catholic, Buddhist and Confucian leaders from the Indonesian
Committee for Religion and Peace said that "provocation" was the best explanation for
the violence.
"We call on people to resist being provoked by third parties," said Din Syamsuddin,
head of the committee after a meeting at the office of the country's second-largest
Muslim organization, Muhammadiyah.
He accused such parties of having a "political motive" and that police should identify
those who do not want peace in the Malukus.
More Aceh Rights Accusations
Responding to widespread allegations of rights abuses in Aceh, the National
Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) set up posts in the regencies of
Bireuen, a Free Aceh Movement (GAM) stronghold and Lhokseumawe, home to the
military (TNI) headquarters, to receive accurate reports directly from the field.
Komnas HAM submitted reports to the government on Friday (30/4/04) claiming both
the TNI and GAM were committing widespread rights abuses in the ongoing war. "We
have monitored the escalating violence in Aceh since May last year and filed reports
on a series of rights abuses in the province," Komnas HAM Chairman Abdul Hakim
Garuda Nusantara said.
"The two warring parties, the TNI and GAM, should be held responsible for rights
abuses in the province," said Nusantara, adding "regardless of its non-state status,
the secessionist movement has violated someone else's rights by holding hostages."
Rights abuses were in five categories -- forced deportation of people, arbitrary arrest,
forced disappearances, rapes and extra-judicial killings.
TNI accused GAM rebels on Saturday (1/5/04) of killing an elderly woman, her
daughter and a teacher. A 47-year-old woman and her 74-year-old mother were shot
dead at their home in Pidie regency on Thursday after they refused to give money to
members of GAM, local military chief Lt. Col. Abdul Rochim Siregar said. The rebels
wanted the woman, a teacher, to pay "taxes", Siregar said.
In a separate incident, rebels shot dead another high school teacher early Friday. "A
group of GAM rebels with M-16 rifles and pistols came to his house and asked him to
pay taxes. He was shot dead after he said he didn't have money," Siregar said. Rebel
spokesmen could not be reached for comment.
The provincial education office said more than 60 teachers have been killed in the
separatist conflict over the past five years.
Military operation command spokesman in Lhokseumawe Lt. Col. Asep Sapari said
five GAM rebels were killed on separate clashes on Thursday (29/4/04).
Makassar Police Chiefs Sacked
National Police chief Gen. Da'i Bachtiar fired Makassar Police chiefs after police
officers stormed a campus in the South Sulawesi provincial capital and assaulted
protesting students, South Sulawesi Police chief Insp. Gen. Jusuf Manggabarani said
Saturday (1/5/04).
"They have been removed from their positions because the brutality of their men is
their responsibility," Jusuf said. "Their actions in handling the student rally did not
follow proper procedures."
East Makassar Police officers stormed the Indonesia Muslim University (UMI) to
release a traffic police officer taken hostage during a student demonstration against
the re-arrest of Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Ba'asyir in Jakarta on Friday morning.
Makassar Police chief Sr. Comr. Jose Rizal, East Makassar Police chief Adj. Sr.
Comr. Eko Suprianto and Panakukang Police chief Adj. Comr. Namora Simanjuntak
have all been replaced after the incident was shown in all its horror by private TV
station SCTV.
Two students were shot and 70 arrested after the clash but viewers saw scores of
students being beaten mercilessly, many with rifle butts.
Earlier Rizal had said his men had followed proper procedure when storming the
campus. "We were about to release a fellow officer taken hostage by the students,
but they resisted us. We had no other option," he said.
E. Timor Militia Threat
With the planned pullout of the United Nation Peacekeeping Force from East Timor,
scheduled for early June, threats of militia attacks have increased. The East Timor
authorities are particularly worried about increasing militia operations at border areas.
A joint military and police force in East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) is keeping watch on
pro-Indonesia militiamen suspected of attempting to create chaos in East Timor.
The militia is hoarding thousands of firearms, grenades and ammunition in NTT
territory bordering East Timor, the military (TNI) said Friday (30/4/04).
Local military commander Col. Moeswarno Moesanip said soldiers and paramilitary
Mobile Brigade police stationed in the border area were intensively monitoring the
activities of around 20 militia leaders and members reported to be gathering there.
Military-backed militia were blamed for the rampage that followed East Timor's vote for
independence in August 1999. Only a number of militia leaders were jailed for the
mayhem, while senior TNI officers who were then responsible for security in the
territory remained free.
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