San Francisco Chronicle, Monday, May 24, 2004 12:01 PDT
Separatist leader says peacekeepers should be sent to Indonesia
ROBERT JABLON, Associated Press Writer
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- The fugitive leader of an Indonesian separatist group says
international peacekeepers should be sent to the Maluku islands, where dozens died
in Christian-Muslim violence last month.
Alex Manuputty, who has been convicted of treason in Indonesia and sentenced to
four years in prison, accused the Jakarta government of inciting religious violence in
the Malukus. He claimed snipers shot many of the 39 people who died in the Malukus
last month.
"Indonesia continues to become a place where they harbor terrorism," the 56-year-old
Manuputty told The Associated Press in an interview last week in California, where he
has been living recently.
"You can no longer distinguish between the jihad forces, the Muslim militants, the
police, the military or the Indonesian government itself," he said. "The military are
supposed to protect the people, but instead they were used to kill the people."
Two-thirds of those killed in April were Muslims. But Manuputty and others say
authorities are fomenting the religious intolerance to squelch the independence
movement.
Manuputty was in Washington earlier this month to press for an inquiry by the United
States or the United Nations into alleged abuses in the Malukus.
Indonesia has asked the United States to deport Manuputty, said Marty Natalegawa,
a spokesman for the Indonesian Foreign Ministry. He said, however, that there is no
extradition treaty between the two countries.
The U.S. Embassy in Jakarta, the Indonesian capital, said no formal deportation
request had been received.
The issue is sensitive for Washington. Top Bush administration officials have been
pushing to overturn a congressional ban on ties with the Indonesian military.
Indonesia is the world's most populous Muslim nation, and Christians comprise more
than 20 million of its approximately 210 million people. Since 1999, thousands of
people have died in violence between Muslims and Christians in the Malukus, formerly
known as the Spice islands.
Christians were once a majority in the Maluku chain, but an influx of Muslims has
swollen the population to 2 million -- about half Christians and half Muslims.
Christians long have contended they are victims of discrimination in the region. They
and Western analysts say that a violent Muslim militia was commanded by hard-line
generals in Jakarta.
Manuputty, a Christian, heads the banned Maluku Sovereignty Front, which seeks
independence for the southern Maluku islands. The group, which has no armed wing,
is primarily Christian. It has called for a local referendum on independence.
If independence is granted, Manuputty said, the nation created would be a democracy
that "fears God."
Manuputty and his deputy were arrested after encouraging followers to raise banned
flags of the so-called Republic of South Maluku. Released on appeal, he came to the
United States and is seeking political asylum.
He says he believes he would be killed if he returns to Indonesia now.
Manuputty's wife and grown daughter were arrested May 1 and are being held in
Jakarta. His son is a fugitive.
Outsiders estimate Manuputty's group once had about 200 official members; its rallies
have drawn up to 1,000 supporters.
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Associated Press writer Slobodan Lekic contributed to this report from Jakarta.
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