LAKSAMANA.Net, February 23, 2005 07:24 PM
Maluku Students Jailed For Treason
Laksamana.Net - Two university students in Ambon, the capital of troubled Maluku
province, have been convicted of treason and sentenced to two years in jail for
hoisting flags of the separatist South Maluku Republic (RMS).
Ambon District Court on Tuesday (22/2/05) ruled that Novy Jemi Tapilatu and Ade
Chandra Lattan had been legitimately and convincingly found guilty of the criminal act
of treason against the Unitary Republic of Indonesia under Article 106 of the Criminal
Code.
Presiding judge Iim Nurohim said the two students from Ambon's Indonesian Christian
University raised the RMS flags last June in the city's Bailoe Siwalima district.
The students were also found guilty of attending separatist meetings in a house
owned by Maluku Sovereignty Front (FKM) leader Alex Manuputty in Kudamati
district.
Nurohim said incriminating evidence included RMS flags, flagpoles, three homemade
bombs and a machete found in the defendants' homes.
He said the students' actions had the potential to cause national disintegration and
public unrest. They were spared a heavier sentence, he added, because it was their
first offense and they were still young, had expressed regret over their actions and
promised not to repeat them.
Tapilatu and Lattan had earlier admitted in court to praying for the struggle of
FKM/RMS and being photographed with other members and sympathizers of the
movement at Manuputty's house.
Three witnesses who testified during the trial were unable to say whether the
defendants were members or merely sympathizers of FKM/RMS.
Massacres
Maluku's original separatist movement emerged following the end of Dutch colonial
rule but was soon crushed by the Indonesian military in the 1950s. Nostalgia for
separatism began to emerge over 1999-2002, when the government was seen as
failing to stop massacres of Christians in the province.
Much of the sectarian violence was blamed on the military and radical Islamic
paramilitary group Laskar Jihad, although Christian militia groups also waged war
Muslims, resulting in parts of Maluku being divided along religious lines.
FKM, which is primarily Christian and has no armed wing, has irked authorities since
its inception in 2000 by calling for a local referendum on independence. The calls have
generally been made in illegal flag-hoisting ceremonies to commemorate the April 25
anniversary of the RMS.
Manuputty and his deputy Samuel Waileruny were arrested in 2002 for encouraging
their supporters to fly the separatist flags. The two were convicted of treason in 2003
and sentenced to four years in prison. They were jailed in Jakarta pending an appeal
against the sentences, but were released after their detention warrants expired. The
Supreme Court ended up rejecting Manuputty's appeal, but he was granted a visa by
the US Embassy in Jakarta and fled to America, where he now lives in exile.
The FKM leader believes he will be killed if he returns to Indonesia and has called for
an inquiry by the US or United Nations into alleged violations by state troops in
Maluku.
"Indonesia continues to become a place where they harbor terrorism. You can no
longer distinguish between the jihad forces, the Muslim militants, the police, the
military or the Indonesian government itself. The military are supposed to protect the
people, but instead they were used to kill the people," he told the Associated Press
last year.
New sectarian riots erupted in Ambon on April 25, 2004, after FKM members rallied to
celebrate the 54th anniversary of the RMS. The march turned violent when Muslim
nationalists hurled abuse and stones at the Christian separatists, sparking clashes
between the two communities. As the violence intensified, hundreds of buildings were
torched, bombs were detonated and unidentified snipers shot civilians and police. At
least 41 people were killed during the unrest.
More Arrests After Tourists Welcomed By Separatist Flags
Maluku Police this week arrested 13 people on suspicion of treason, accusing them
of hoisting RMS flags in Ambon last Friday when 299 German tourists on board a
cruise ship arrived in the city.
Among those arrested were village officials from Kudamati, detikcom online news
portal reported.
Ambon Police chief Leonidas Braksan had initially said it was unclear whether the
flags were raised by genuine RMS supporters or by people attempting to incite
conflict.
But he later said RMS flags were found in the house of a suspected separatist, so the
man and his followers were arrested.
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