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| Southeast Asia |
| Religious War Restarts in Indonesia |
| 2004-05-01 |
| A young boy crouches beside the ruins of a house, lighting a gasoline bomb. An ashen cross on his chest marks him as a Christian fighter. Less than 25 yards away, Muslim combatants catapult homemade grenades across the burnt and abandoned houses that mark the no man's land in this eastern Indonesian city. "This is what it is like, morning, afternoon and night," says Victor, barely flinching as a bomb explodes nearby. "Last week we were neighbors, now we are enemies." A week of sectarian fighting in Ambon has left 37 people dead, reviving fears the Maluku islands could plunge back into the Muslim-Christian bloodletting that killed up to 9,000 people three years ago. Ambon is the capital of the province comprising the islands, known as the Spice islands during Dutch colonial rule. Indonesian security forces have done little to stop the clashes and in some cases have even joined in, witnesses say. While Indonesia is the world's most populous Muslim nation, the 2 million inhabitants of the Malukus are evenly divided between Christians and Muslims. Christians here, as elsewhere in Indonesia, have accused authorities of discrimination and failing to protect them from Muslim attacks. Many fear Jakarta is too absorbed by July's presidential election, the first since the downfall of ex-dictator Suharto in 1998, to be concerned with the violence. If so, the government is taking a big risk: A prolonged conflict could galvanize militant Muslims in Indonesia, thousands of whom came to the region to fight in the earlier conflict. Indonesian intelligence officials say several Ambon veterans have turned up in Jemaah Islamiyah, the al-Qaida-linked terror group blamed for a string of bombings in recent years, including the 2002 Bali bombings. "This is a holy war," said one Muslim fighter, gesturing to the Christian part of the divided seaside city with a spear. "We are obliged to defend our faith." Many of the combatants on the Christian side appear to be barely out of their teens. The fighting erupted Sunday after the province's small, mostly Christian separatist movement paraded through the city center. The display of secessionist sentiment angered Muslims, who have cast themselves as defenders of the country's unity to avoid military crackdowns and attract legitimacy in Jakarta. The conflict is often seen in these terms by government officials and the national media, which infuriates Christians. "How is burning churches and homes fighting separatism?" asks one woman who declined to be identified. "We work in Indonesia, we love Indonesia. We are only defending our homes." In fact, the separatist Maluku Sovereignty Front has no armed wing and, local Christians say, numbers less than 200 members. It has never been seen as a threat to the country's unity, unlike secessionist movements in the provinces of Aceh and Papua, the main trouble spots in the sprawling Indonesian archipelago. "The government of Indonesia started this problem, not us," said Thos Talakua, a spokesman for the group. "It's our hope that the international community can come and save the Maluku people." |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #1 What I don't get is why we're not funding these guys. The $1b a year we provided to the Afghan resistance during their war against the Soviets would have the Indonesians ejected from the Moluccas in no time. |
| Posted by: Zhang Fei 2004-05-01 10:38:08 PM |