Borneo Bulletin, Thursday, July 29, 2004
Maluku treason trial opens
JAKARTA (AFP) - A court in the eastern Indonesian city of Ambon has begun the trial
of 36 people who are charged with treason linked to a week of bloody communal
unrest in April, reports said Wednesday.
Prosecutors at the tightly-guarded court accused a group of 19 men of plotting against
the state with the aim of secession, the Detikcom online news service said.
Seventeen others went on trial at the same court on Tuesday, the Jakarta Post said.
The defendants were accused of taking part in a separatist rally in Ambon on April 25.
Authorities say the rally triggered off an outbreak of Muslim-Christian violence in which
38 people were killed.
Violence broke out after a procession by mainly Christian separatist supporters who
were demanding the release of colleagues arrested following a separatist flag-raising
ceremony earlier that day.
But many of those who died in subsequent days were killed by unidentified snipers.
Hundreds of homes and other buildings were torched.
As with the first batch of 17, the 19 defendants are accused of promoting separatism
by supporting the separatist South Maluku Republic since 2001.
Mostly Christian residents proclaimed the republic in 1950, a year after the Dutch
formally granted Indonesia independence. It was quickly suppressed.
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