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ABC (23/04/01)
Special effort for peace in Malukus pays off.
A period of relative calm has descended on Indonesia's Maluku Islands, which
have been shaken by years of violence between Christians and Muslims.
Christians were able to celebrate Easter without disruption and there has been
some tentative attempts to restore trust between Christians and Muslims
through reconciliation talks. Special joint forces sent temporarily to the province
late last year are having a stabilising effect and it seems Indonesian authorities
are keen to keep the fragile peace alive. They have banned a mainly-Christian
based separatist group, which had been gearing up to celebrate a controversial
independence anniversary this week. Tricia Fitzgerald reports.
Listen to the interview (Real Player required to listen to the interview)
Deatils of transcripts:
Separatist group banned in Indonesia's Maluku Islands In contrast to Aceh, a period of relative calm has descended on Indonesia's Maluku Islands.
Shaken by years of violence between Christians and Muslims, Indonesia's Maluku Islands, are experiencing a period of relative calm.
Christians were able to celebrate Easter without disruption and there has been some tentative attempts to restore trust beween Christians and Muslims through reconciliation talks.
Special joint forces sent temporarily to the province late last year are having a stabizing effect and it seems Indonesian authorities are keen to keep the fragile peace alive.
They have banned a mainly-Christian based separatist group, which had been gearing up to celebrate a controversial independence anniversary this week.
Tricia Fitzgerald reports.
FITZGERALD: The newly formed, mainly Christian backed Maluku Sovereignity Front, wants the southern part of the province to become an independent nation. The separatist group's leader Doctor Alex Manuputty was arrested and released earlier this year. One of his followers, Mena Moria, a political refugee in Australia, says the separatist cause has become popular particularly in the overflowing refugee camps.
MORIA: FKM is quite popular. FKM in my opinion helps to awaken the Maluku people who have been suffering from the bloody conflict for the past two years.
The Government of Indonesia does not seem and is not willing to respond to the people of Maluku. The citizens cannot be guaranteed security and peace. Many human rights abuses have not been seriously brought into court. FKM was born as a result of the government's ignorance and inability to protect the Maluku people.
FITZGERALD: The government has banned the group, saying its plans to raise flags on this week's anniversary of a 1950's separatist uprising, could destabilise the islands at a time when Muslim and Christian leaders are finally getting together for reconciliation talks.
Even many Malukan Christians, although sympathetic, are keen to distance themselves from the separatist movement. They fear any call for the province to break away from Jakarta, will provoke an angry response from Muslim extremists.
Christian and muslim leaders want to focus instead on local efforts to restore peace and harmony which are gaining momentum.
Islamic leader Yusef Eli says Muslims and Christians are working together to set up a model reconciliation village outside of the capital Ambon.
ELI: We are gathering Muslims and Christians mixed in one village and the security is to be held by both sides Muslim and Christian. We are working together side by side. Our program is supported by the Governor, the military and the police. We are making this pilot project to prove to the people that we can live together, Muslims and Christians, side by side, as ever we have before.
FITZGERALD: In another positive development almost one and half thousand Muslim and Christian leaders have attended reconciliation talks, organised by the Jakarta-based Go East Institute, in Langgur, in the south-east of the Malukus.
The Go East Institute's Doctor Ignas Eryanto says the meeting agreed the way to stop further violence was to go back to traditional Malukan village methods of resolving disputes.
ERYANTO: The conclusion reached from these talks is that the people in the Malukus have to revitalise their traditional mechanisims in order to make some rehabilitation. The people there want that reconciliation method to be based on their local culture. It is the traditional mechanism that has been used to avoid conflict and wars among them.
FITZGERALD: Doctor Eryanto says that agreement means that the government should ban extremist groups like the separatists and the Islamic Laksar Jihad army, which has been blamed for much of the anti-Christian violence.
Yusef Eli says the local government has asked the Laskar Jihad group to leave the Malukus and return to Java.
ELI: We are natives of Ambon. We don't mind outsiders. This is our country. If they don't want to receive this reconciliation they may go!
FITZGERALD: Christian groups however say the peace is only temporary. They accuse the local government of being under the control of anti-Christian military leaders. They say that makes it unlikely that the government will outlaw the Laskar Jihad or take other reconciliatory measures like closing down extremist radio stations or rebuilding destroyed Christian universities. Christian leader Professor Nanere says Christians are asking why the Maluku separatist group has been banned while the Laskar Jihad and its leader Djafar Umar Thalib are still operating freely in the Malukus.
NANERE: What they call reconciliation in fact, acording to me that's not reconciliation. Because the people behind all the conflict, they are still there. We must ban all the muslim hardliners now with all the guns. That must be the priority. We all suffer now. And the government now according to me they just keep maintaining all this conflict.
(first broadcast, Mon 23 April 2001)
© 2001 Australian Broadcasting Corporation
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