AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, Friday January 25, 2002 4:34 PM
Top security minister visits Malukus to try to end bloodshed
JAKARTA, Jan 25 (AFP) - Indonesia's top security minister left Friday for the Maluku
islands, the scene of years of Christian-Muslim fighting in which thousands have died,
and said he would try to bring peace in six months.
Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said he would organise a meeting with local public
figures on the search for peace, review the state of civil emergency imposed on
Maluku and North Maluku provinces, and see whether current peace efforts are being
conducted properly.
He said the government seemed certain to end the emergency in North Maluku while
a decision about Ambon island would depend on latest developments.
Yudhoyono, quoted by the state Antara new agency, said the government would try to
settle the conflicts in both provinces in six months.
He was accompanied by top welfare minister Jusuf Kalla, national police chief General
Da'i Bachtiar and several government officials and military officers.
Fighting between Muslims and Christians in the Maluku islands has left more than
5,000 people dead and created 500,000 refugees since violence first erupted in the
town of Ambon, on the island of the same name, in January 1999.
The involvement of Laskar Jihad, a radical paramilitary Islamic group, has been
blamed for worsening the conflict. Its militants began arriving in large numbers in May
2000, apparently unhindered by security forces.
The violence has lessened recently.
But on Wednesday Ambon's Mayor Yopie Max Papilaya was quoted as saying that
conflicts between police and troops had hindered efforts at reconciliation between
Muslims and Christians.
He said the state of civil emergency was made ineffective by tension between troops
and police and their apparent bias towards one faction or the other.
In December at least three people were hurt in a shootout between police, soldiers
and marines in Ambon.
Copyright © 2001 AFP. All rights reserved.
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