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Is Maluku becoming another kosovo ? |
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June 27, 2000
JAKARTA,
JUNE 26 (AP) - Violence gripped the Maluku islands Monday, as church
leaders and protesters demanded the United Nations intervene and officials
reportedly declared a limited state of emergency to halt escalating fighting between Muslims and Christians.
In the latest clashes in the battle-scarred main city of Ambon, seven people were killed and a mosque was burned along with dozens of houses, witnesses said.
"You can hear the fighting raging and see smoke in the distance," said Erik Mohave, a local journalist.
At least 60 people have been killed in the last six days in Ambon. More than 100 died in a Muslim attack on a Christian village in the north of the island group eight days ago. Almost 3,000 people of both faiths have been killed since the fighting started 18 months ago.
The
official Antara news agency quoted National Police Chief Gen. Rusdihardjo
as saying a civil state of emergency had been invoked, giving the military
extra powers to impose curfews, set up blockades and detain suspects indefinitely. Local civilian government officials, however, remain responsible for the administration of the islands.
The declaration is the first in a three-step alert system that leads to martial law. However, analysts said the measure was largely symbolic and more dramatic action was needed.
"We need a special military taskforce to take full control for at least three months," said Salim Said, a military analyst in Jakarta.
Senior police and military officials were not immediately available for comment. Horrified by the fast rising death toll, Ambon's Roman Catholic Bishop Joseph Tethool claimed Indonesia's military was incapable of enforcing peace. He accused many soldiers of incompetence and bias.
Tethool said he and senior Protestant preachers had written to U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan calling on the world body to stop the fighting.
About 50 protesters outside the U.S. Embassy in the national capital, Jakarta, demanded Washington take action. Squads of police were on hand but the protest remained peaceful.
The protesters climbed the embassy's fence and hung banners that read: "If the United States can save Kosovo, why do you let fighting in Maluku continue?"
Human rights activists in Jakarta also said foreign intervention might be the best way to end the cycle of violence.
"We asked the United Nations to intervene because that is the only way to bring peace to this region," Tethool said in a telephone interview. "The military is no longer capable of stopping the conflict. Many soldiers have taken sides."
Tethool said most Christians have fled the region after Muslims attacked them using high-powered rifles and other weapons.
Indonesian
Foreign Affairs spokesman Sulaiman Abdulmanan said Jakarta
would not agree to U.N. political or military intervention, but would
accept humanitarian assistance for Maluku, bout 2,600 kilometers (1,600 miles) northeast of Jakarta.
"It's an internal problem. We don't want to see any foreign countries interfering, " he said. Last year, international peacekeepers took control of East Timor after its people voted for independence from Indonesia, triggering a bloody backlash by pro-Jakarta militias.
President Abdurrahman Wahid, a Muslim scholar who has long preached religious tolerance, has accused outside provocateurs of whipping up sectarian hatred.
He has banned travel by outsiders to the region following reports that thousands of Islamic vigilantes from elsewhere in Indonesia have taken part in the fighting.
Critics doubt Indonesia's poorly equipped and trained military can enforce the travel ban. Despite this, the Indonesian navy impounded 10 ships carrying machine guns, knives and poison arrows bound for the strife-torn region in the past few days, The Indonesian Observer newspaper reported Monday. |