AMBON, Indonesia (AP) - Zeth Supusepa, an Indonesian Christian, is in no mood for forgiveness as he explains how suspected Muslim attackers hurled a bomb at him outside a church in the eastern city of Ambon. Gee, I wonder if the islamofascists realized what hard feelings they’d generate, you know, like killing people and burning things down?
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Across the city, Islamic fighters armed with long swords vow to avenge the deaths of fellow Muslims allegedly shot by Christian snipers. Allegations are enough? Hmm, I wonder who’s spreading the rumors?
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Unlike most of mainly Muslim Indonesia, the Malukus’ 2 million people are evenly divided between Muslims and Christians. //bitter sarcasm on//Oh, dear, we wouldn’t want religious peace and harmony in Indonesia, the world’s largest (at least nominally) Muslim nation. No, no, no, can’t have that.//sarcasm off// The two sides are again afraid to meet each other, their hatred and mistrust growing amid allegations of the others’ brutality.
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Communal tensions have worsened in recent decades with an influx of Muslims from elsewhere in Indonesia. And Islamic radicals have been trying to whip up Muslim fervor in reaction to the global war on terrorist groups. The earlier conflict here galvanized militant Muslims across Indonesia, and it also attracted Islamic fighters from around Southeast Asia and from the Middle East. Oh, people like Bashir? So, the islamofascists are trying to //sarcasm on// get back to better days //sarcasm off//.
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A U.N.-funded school that taught Muslim and Christian children was one of the first buildings to be burned when the clashes broke out last Sunday. Soon after, a mob torched the offices housing all the region’s U.N. agencies. "It’s all very sad," said Caroline Tupamahu, project manager for the U.N. Development Project in Ambon. "It will take a long time to recover now the people don’t trust each other anymore." Like other U.N. staffers in the city, she was evacuated Wednesday. Real staying power, the UN.
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Covering both sides of the story is all but impossible for local journalists. True even when there is no manipulation -- more so, now. The police station and the major government officers are in Christian parts of town, making official comment hard to find for Muslim reporters. A foreign-funded media center in what used to be the neutral part of town, where journalists from both faiths once met and worked on stories together, barely operates. The hotel that housed it was set alight during the troubles. So, the islamofascists didn’t want any Muslim reporters getting them newfangled Western/Christian ideas now!
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It would be good that President’s daughter visits troubled Ambon, but only if it isn’t to appeal to Muslim voters on behalf of her mom. Even then, though, it’s too little too late. The problems are a lot more complex, as noted in the article Clerics say Ambon disaster provoked. An excerpt from that article:
Sociologist Thamrin Amal Tamagola said the clash, which started on Sunday, was the culmination of several problems. The trigger was not the hoisting of the flag of the separatist Republic of South Maluku (RMS) movement, he said, but because "the police were not professional when they guarded the separatists during the rally as they celebrated the RMS anniversary in Ambon’s main street," adding that initially the clash was not between Christians and Muslims. //*I believe, IIRC, that the police were attacked, first.*// Some Muslims were irked by the police guarding the rally of RMS supporters, who were mostly //*but not all*// Christian, confirming earlier suspicions that the police, particularly those from Ambon and Seram islands, sided with Christians, he said. //*NOTE: This, by the way, provides great rationalizations to maraud and riot, because it offends the Indonesian principle of UNITY.*// Thamrin suggested that police from other ethnic groups be sent with riot control capabilities. "Don’t send soldiers; that would ruin everything," he asserted. Another problem, he said, was that Jakarta had neglected to follow up the government-sponsored truce in February 2002. Thamrin called on the government to improve conditions in Maluku, where survivors were trying to return to normality.
Elsewhere, the complex nature of Indonesia’s cultures and religions was previously addressed right here at Rantburg. It is helpful, though, I think to keep a picture of the Indonesian nation in mind with all that. Most of the population (about half) are in Java. There is easy access to the Ambon area from the Philippines, due North . . .
