CRISIS CENTRE DIOCESE OF AMBOINA
Jalan Pattimura 32 – Ambon 97124 – Indonesia
Tel 0062 (0)911 342195 Fax 0062 (0)911 355337
E-mail: crisiscentre01@hotmail.com
Ambon, March 5, 2002
THE SITUATION IN AMBON / MOLUCCAS – Report No. 247
1. DEFENDERS OF THE SPMM – At 10.00 a.m. today once again a large group of
women held a pro-SPMM (Muslim Radio Ambon) demonstration at the Governor’s
Office. Since the Governor is in Jakarta these days, they were met by Police Chief
Commander BrigGen Sunarko. The demonstrators voiced their aspirations in a
10-point statement, in which among other things was demanded that the SPMM
Radio should not be prevented to broadcast its messages, and those that had started
the conflict on January 19, 1999, should be brought to justice. They also rejected the
Moluccas Agreement of Malino. The gradually expanding mass after two hours left the
front yard of the Governor! ’s Office in a orderly way, however, were met by a mass of
Christians that want this provocative radio station to be closed down. Soon stones
were thrown at each other. Security forces intervened by firing warning shots and
succeeded to prevent any bloodshed (however, just now we heard Radio SPMM say
that several Muslims were injured by stones). The euphoria of only a few days ago
seems to have dwindled to close to zero.
2. MAKING AMBON FREE OF ALCOHOL – Since a lot of unrest is caused by
drunkenness, the governor had already earlier prohibited all alcoholic beverages. Local
TV this evening showed 2,500 liter illegally imported sopi (local liquor with high alcohol
percentage) being destroyed at the naval base of Halong.
C.J.Böhm msc,
Crisis Centre Diocese of Amboina
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