DATE=1/19/2000
TYPE=BACKGROUND REPORT
TITLE=LOMBOK-VIOLENCE
NUMBER=5-45261
BYLINE=GARY THOMAS
DATELINE=BANGKOK
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: Violence in Indonesia has spread to the island
of Lombok. The outbreak has sent a scare through
Lombok's popular tourist industry. As Southeast Asia
correspondent Gary Thomas reports analysts are baffled
about the spread of unrest.
TEXT: Indonesia has been gripped by spasms of
violence ever since the 1998 forced departure of
President Suharto from office. Through his autocratic
rule, Mr. Suharto and a loyal military establishment
kept the lid on ethnic and religious tensions.
Now it appears the lid is off. Ethnic, religious, and
political conflicts are popping up across the
Indonesian archipelago.
The most serious outbreaks have been in the Maluku
Islands, where violence has been raging between
Muslims and Christians for a year. There are
separatist guerrilla movements in Aceh and Papua,
formerly Irian Jaya, and sporadic flashpoints
elsewhere.
But Lombok seems an unlikely candidate for an outbreak
of sectarian violence. It is a tourist destination,
second in Indonesia only to its neighbor, Bali. The
majority of the population is Muslim, although there
are Christians and Hindus. The Lombok violence
erupted after a rally by Muslims demanding an end to
the Christian-Muslim clashes further east in the
Maluku Islands. But in the ensuing rampage in Lombok,
not only were Christian churches attacked, but
Chinese-owned businesses as well.
Indonesian military and political affairs specialist
Harold Crouch says the roots of unrest are not clear.
The senior lecturer at the Australian National
University in Canberra says the spasms of violence are
not necessarily related.
// CROUCH ACT //
If you plotted every case of ethnic or religious
violence in Indonesia in the past year, you
would find little things breaking out all over
the place. Now, quite often these things happen
quite independently of things that happen
elsewhere. Now, it is does look as if it might
be following on with what's been happening in
Maluku. But there are often very local
explanations for these things. Maybe there is a
kind of trigger from what happens elsewhere.
// END ACT //
It is clear the violence in the Malukus is fuelling
the anger of Muslims, who make up 90-percent of
Indonesia's population. Rallies like the one in
Lombok have been organized elsewhere, including in the
capital, Jakarta. But analysts dismiss the idea that
a radical Islamic movement is fomenting unrest to
promote making Indonesia a Muslim state.
Mr. Crouch says it is not likely Indonesia is on the
way to becoming the Yugoslavia of Southeast Asia,
splintering apart into different pieces. As he points
out, most of the violence is rooted in local
conflicts, rather than separatist movements.
// CROUCH ACT //
This sort of thing is localized. Like Maluku is
not a case of Balkanization. For Balkanization,
you need an elite that is leading a movement
demanding a separate state. There are two
provinces in Indonesia in that condition: Aceh
and Papua. There is no serious separatist
movement anywhere else in Indonesia. So in a
country of 26 provinces - or whatever the number
is now - two out of 26 is not a huge number.
// END ACT //
The violence is presenting Indonesia's first
democratically elected government in more than 40-
years a severe headache. Some Indonesian publications
have gone so far as to suggest it is being instigated
by the military to destabilize the government of
President Abdurrahman Wahid.
Mr. Crouch dismisses that view. But, as he points
out, that is not to say there are not disgruntled
local elements in military intelligence, for example,
who are willing to stir up unrest. (SIGNED)
NEB/GPT/FC/RAE
19-Jan-2000 08:50 AM EDT (19-Jan-2000 1350 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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