DATE=1/28/2000
TYPE=BACKGROUND REPORT
TITLE=INDONESIA / AMBON
NUMBER=5-45329
BYLINE=PATRICIA NUNAN
DATELINE=AMBON
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: Some of the latest violence to rock
Indonesia has taken place in the eastern province
of Maluku -- the chain of islands formerly known
as the Spice Islands, some 24-hundred
kilometers east of the capital Jakarta. It was in
the provincial capital Ambon that clashes between
Muslims and Christians claimed more than 500
lives in December, the sad end to a year of
religious clashes. Patricia Nunan reports from
Ambon that while each community continues to
place the blame for the fighting on the other, there
is growing concern that the violence may be part of a
larger power struggle taking place in Jakarta.
TEXT:
/// [sound of chaos]///
Last month's bloodshed marked the worst week of
sectarian violence in the history of Indonesia.
At least 500 people were killed in Maluku's
provincial capital Ambon in violence between
Muslims and Christians that broke out after a
Muslim child was hit and killed by a car driven
by a Christian.
As tragic as it has been, the eruption of
fighting was only the latest in a series of
clashes between Maluku's Christian and Muslim
communities that has claimed, by some estimates
at least two thousand lives in the past year.
The bloodshed continues to reinforce the divide
separating the two groups.
Each side is now certain that it was other group
that started the fighting that first broke out in
January last year.
Reverend Sammy Titaley is with the Protestant
Church for Maluku province.
/// ACT Sammy Titaley ///
What I can understand is that we were attacked.
The Christians were attacked since the first riot
19 January. I can give you the proof actually, at
the first riot in Ambon.
/// END ACT ///
The head of the Maluku Chamber of Commerce and
Industry, Jusuf Ely, is Muslim.
/// ACT JUSUF ELY ///
Supposing the Christian people stop this riot
today, and tomorrow become peace. Because Muslim
side never make attack to the Christian side.
///END ACT///
Unlike the rest of Indonesia, which is
predominantly Muslim, Christians make up about 54
percent of Maluku's two million people. The city
of Ambon, much like the capital of the former-
Yugoslavia, Sarajevo, used to be considered a
model of inter-religious harmony.
///ACT CRICKETS SOUND/ MEN WALKING///
Past a lone soldier on night-patrol on a nearby
street corner, down narrow lanes wending their
way through a jumble of closely-packed houses,
six Christians agree to show off their home-made
weapons to reporters.
They are feats of ingenuity. Besides machetes and
nail-bombs, there are cross-bows the size of
rifles. Nails are hammered flat at the tip and
sharpened like arrow-heads. Then they are loaded
into a groove in the top of the wooden barrel,
and shot by a sling made of dozens of rubber-
bands woven tightly together.
Pistols are made of pipes welded together.
Instead of a trigger, a spring hooked on the
outside of the barrel forces a metal rod into the
bullet with enough force to propel the round.
At 40 years old, the apparent leader of the
group, Bente is more than twice the age of the
handful of sixteen year-olds keenly displaying
their weapons.
///ACT -- Bente [in Indonesian]///
These weapons are just so we're ready to protect
ourselves," he says. "We don't have to fight
against the Muslims, but against the army."
It is the mistrust of the army in Maluku that has
sent jitters throughout Indonesia.
Some, like Bente, believe that the Indonesian
military, made up predominantly of Muslims, takes
part in clashes against the Christians -- a
charge the local military commanders consistently
deny.
Others, including Indonesian President
Abdurrahman Wahid, believe elements in the
military may be provoking the violence in Maluku
and other parts of Indonesia, in order to
destabilize his government to enable a military
takeover.
It is the one point that both the Muslim and
Christian communities in Maluku seem to agree on.
Father Agus Ulahayan is with Team 24 -- a group
of twelve Christians and twelve Muslims working
together to end the violence in Maluku. Their
main goal --figuring out what group is provoking
the disturbances.
/// ACT -- FATHER AGUS ///
This is also the most difficult question for us.
Why because we are not intelligence (operatives).
So we cannot pinpoint that this person or that
person (that is causing trouble). But we really
believe that there is a special power, behind all
of this crisis. And that is what we try to spell
out, and try to motivate, to move our government,
and all our authorities, so they try to prove who
is the person or who is the group, and that is
what the people want.
/// END FATHER AGUS ACT
Military analyst, Salim Said, says the scenario
that the military may be working to overthrow the
government is possible, but unlikely.
/// ACT SALIM SAID ///
The possibility for that is there. But that
possibility could only be realized if the
cabinet, the government or the administration of
Abdurrahman Wahid does not perform properly so
that the people will be confused, will be
unsatisfied with the civilian government, and
that condition will be easily manipulated by
the military to deepen, or re-deepen their
political involvement, as they did in the past.
///END ACT ///
Despite his misgivings about the military,
President Wahid says he feels confident enough
about the loyalty of the Armed Forces to leave
the country for two weeks. His departure came
after he signed a presidential decree forcing
four cabinet ministers to resign their military
posts -- a move seen as distancing the four
generals from support they had within the Armed
Forces.
But while that may be reassuring to many
Indonesians concerned about a coup-d'etat,
it will be of little consolation to the people of
Maluku province -- who remain locked in a cycle of
violence and blame. (signed).
NEB/PN/FC
28-Jan-2000 03:58 AM EDT (28-Jan-2000 0858 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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