DATE=8/16/2000 TYPE=BACKGROUND REPORT TITLE=SULAWESI CONFLICT NUMBER=5-46858 BYLINE=PATRICIA NUNAN DATELINE= CONTENT= MAKASSAR, SULAWESI VOICED AT: INTRO: The 18 months of religious clashes in Indonesia's eastern province of Maluku have all but overshadowed the recent wave of killings in nearby Sulawesi, where up to 500 people may have died in the last few months. But attention may start to shift with the arrival of a reportedly extremist Muslim group called the Laskar Jihad. The group came to Maluku in April vowing a holy war against Christians. Now members of the group are showing up in Sulawesi prompting fears that the religious chaos in Maluku may be beginning to seep into other provinces. TEXT: /// ACT - FADE IN TRAFFIC NOISE AND UNDER /// A busy intersection in the city of Makassar, in south Sulawesi. Beside the usual numbers of newspaper boys, vendors and the occasional beggar approaching cars stopped at the light, a new group has assembled -- members of Laskar Jihad who hand out mission statements in exchange for small donations. This local driver likes the Laskar Jihad. /// VOX-POP IN INDONESIAN W/ VOICE OVER /// I like them because they're Muslim militants. They're brave. They defend what's right. /// END ACT /// "Bravery" may not be the term everyone would apply to Laskar Jihad. The group is accused of launching attacks on Christian villages and intensifying the 18 month conflict in Maluku province. Clashes between the two religious groups have claimed more than three- thousand lives. As they stand on the streets of Makassar, 950 kilometers west of Maluku's capital Ambon, the new Laskar Jihad recruits say they believe that the group is not on the offensive against the Christians. /// VOX-POP IN INDONESIAN W/ VOICE OVER /// It's only revenge towards what the Christians have done. /// END OPT /// Rumors are rife that Laskar Jihad has moved into Central Sulawesi, and that they're pledging revenge for violence against Muslims there. Local leaders believe that up to 500 Muslims may have died in May in a wave of violence by Christians near the city of Poso. Although on one level the conflict appears to be based on religious lines, community leaders say Christians and Muslims have been manipulated by local politicians who stirred up tensions in order to win support in bids for government offices. But in part the tensions can also be traced back 20 years, to a flood of transmigration. The Indonesian government encouraged millions of people to leave poor and densely populated parts of Indonesia -- such as Java -- to settle elsewhere. The lush and underpopulated provinces of Maluku and Sulawesi became favorite destinations for Indonesians from various ethnic and religious backgrounds -- in search of better economic opportunity. But some of the local inhabitants were not pleased with the new competition. Political analyst James van Zorge says that tensions between ethnic groups were exacerbated by Indonesia's economic crisis in 1997. /// VAN ZORGE ACT /// Compared to Javanese they're very aggressive, more easily taken to violence. There are deeply rooted social-economic reasons for violence between the two communities, the Muslims and the Christians within the Malukus, so one should not be that surprised. /// END ACT /// Concern is now growing that ethnic, and now religious, tensions could be spread to other parts of the country by refugees forced to flee Maluku and Sulawesi. Already officials in the province of West Papua refused to let some 12 hundred refugees from Maluku enter the province for several days -- fearing unrest. Those officials, along with aid workers, suspect that for the refugees, it will be difficult to forgive and forget the losses they've suffered as a result of the fighting, and that the Maluku and Sulawesi conflicts may prove themselves to be intractable. (signed) NEB/HK/PN/JO 16-Aug-2000 01:05 AM LOC (16-Aug-2000 0505 UTC) NNNN Source: Voice of America .
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