The Jakarta Post, 6/12/2004 15:47:30
Indonesian soldiers on trial for taking photos with separatist flag
AMBON (AP): Three Indonesian soldiers have gone on trial before a military tribunal in
Indonesia's Maluku islands for allegedly fueling a rebellion by taking photographs with
a separatist flag, a prosecutor said on Saturday.
The soldiers disobeyed their superior's orders to immediately turn over the flag
following a violent separatist rally in April and instead held it aloft to pose for
photographs, said prosecutor Maj. Yon Elfi Suheimi.
"Residents saw the soldiers pose with the flags at a church which gave the
impression that they supported the separatist group. This created unrest among the
people," Suheimi said Friday at the start of the military tribunal in Ambon district
court.
If found guilty the three could be jailed for two years, he said.
The defense attorney, Maj. Edi Ruslan, argued that the men did not support the
separatist group but "only took photographs of themselves with the flag as a memory
of their tour of duty, which is not banned by law."
Clashes between Christians and Muslims erupted on April 25 after several members
of the banned Christian separatist group, the Maluku Sovereignty Front (FKM), rallied
in the provincial capital Ambon for an independent homeland known as the South
MalukuRepublic (RMS).
Muslims, who view such public displays as a provocation, assaulted the
demonstrators, touching off clashes between gangs of Muslim and Christian youths.
The clashes sparked fears that the region could plunge back into Muslim-Christian
battles like those that killed up to 9,000 people three years ago.
Local leaders, however, emphasized that the clashes were not religiously motivated
but rather conflict between separatists and Jakarta loyalists.
Eighty percent of Indonesia's 210 million people are Muslims, but South Maluku's 2
million inhabitants are evenly divided between Muslims and Christians.
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