UN Observer, 2004-04-29
Rebels Urge Netherlands To Interfere In Malukus
By Kazi Mahmood, IOL Southeast Asia correspondent
KUALA LUMPUR, April 27 (IslamOnline.net) – The rebel Maluku Sovereignty Front
(FKM) has urged the Netherlands, the former colonizer of the Indonesian Malukus
islands, to send its troops and encourage international intervention in the spice
Islands to allegedly restore law and order and end what it called "genocide".
A leader of the group, Williem Palemona, told the press in the Netherlands Tuesday,
April 27, he met a day earlier with officials of the Dutch government, to update them
on the situation in Malukus and seek their assistance.
The Dutch government has, however, refused to make any comment on the FKM
leader's request.
In statements, copy of which was e-mailed to IslamOnline.net, 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.
On Sunday, the Christian rebel group paraded in Ambon, to mark a failed
independence bid 54 years ago, triggering violence that claimed the lives of around 30
people according to the latest police reports.
http://islamonline.net/English/News/2004-04/26/article01.shtml
The violence is the worst communal fighting since the Muslims and Christians signed
a peace deal in February 2002 to end three years of clashes that killed 5,000.
The FKM accused the Indonesian military of "sabotaging" the march and triggering
the week-end riots to end their separatist drive.
The call for the Dutch regime to assist the Christians in the Malukus has forced the
dormant Lashkar Jihad (LJ) group to reconstitute an army of Muslim volunteers to
re-enter the spice islands and attempt to put an end to the conflict.
The group, which is opposed to any attempt to declare a Christian state in Southern
Malukus, threatened Tuesday to send its fighters back to Ambon to defend the
Muslims if the Indonesian authorities fail to bring peace to the Islands.
The LJ was instrumental to the protection of the Malukus from the separatists when
the war on the relatively peaceful historical Islands flared up in Ambon in 1999 by a
group of Christian youths in a market in the capital city.
Dutch and Australian mercenaries were said to have attempted several penetrations of
the Islands but were regularly stopped by the LJ fighters who blew up one boat
carrying more than 350 mercenaries in the year 1999.
The LJ had folded its paramilitary arm in 2002 after the intervention of the Indonesian
government in the Malukus conflict and after pressure on its leadership.
LJ leader Jafar Umar Thalib said in a press conference in Jakarta, details of which
e-mailed to IOL, that his movement was prepared to go back to the Islands anthat he
was closely monitoring the situation.
He criticized the Indonesian military for its late intervention in the fighting, adding that
he was certain the Indonesian government would not allow his troops back in Ambon.
"However, we will send troops if the situation deteriorates, with or without the consent
of the government, like we did in 2002," said Jafar.
The Indonesian government had threatened back then to imprison LJ fighters and their
leaders in Jakarta if they did not abandon their posts in the Malukus.
The government had also promised the Muslims that all attempts to create an
independent Malukus would be crushed by the Indonesian military.
The LJ still has its outposts in the Malukus, although they remained disarmed and
peaceful since 2002.
The group believes some foreign forces, including Australia and the Netherlands, have
a common interest in breaking up the Malukus from Indonesia to create an entirely
Christian state in the middle of the Indonesia archipelago.
Thirds Party
Indonesian religious leader on Tuesday accused what they called "thirds parties" of
inciting the renewed violence in Ambon, Maluku province, the Jakarta Post reported
Wednesday.
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.
* Kazi Mahmood, IOL Southeast Asia correspondent
Article republished, courtesy of IslamOnline.net http://www.islamonline.net
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