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International help may be sought in Maluku |
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July 18, 2000
JAKARTA (AP) - With violence spiraling out of control in the Maluku islands and the military taking sides in the religious war, Indonesia's president said Monday that limited international assistance may be required to end the conflict. The Indonesian government has in the past vehemently rejected calls by Christian leaders in the embattled Maluku archipelago for international assistance in ending the sectarian conflict that has claimed about 4,000 lives since it first erupted in January, 1999. "I have ordered the governor (of Maluku province) to work as hard as he can to control the situation," President Abdurrahman Wahid said. Referring to the possibility of international assistance, Wahid said that "if the outcome is still not satisfactory after we have done our best, we may ask for help in the form of equipment and logistics." Wahid's surprise policy reversal came a day after dramatic television footage from the embattled islands for the first time showed Indonesian soldiers assisting Muslim militants in an attack on a Christian neighborhood. Christian clerics in the Malukus, located about 2,600 kilometers (1,600 miles) northeast of Jakarta, have repeatedly warned that elements of the Indonesian army were siding with Muslim paramilitaries from Indonesia's main island of Java who have infiltrated into the archipelago. "I think this latest violence was orchestrated by the army troops," Bishop Joseph Tethool, the Roman Catholic auxiliary bishop in Ambon, said Monday. "They're not willing to stop the fighting," he said. "We appeal again for neutral forces from overseas to mediate between the warring groups." The Indonesian government last month imposed a state of emergency in the Malukus, an archipelago with about 2.1 million people. Muslims account for about 85 percent of Indonesia's 210 million people, but Muslims and Christians are almost evenly split in the Malukus. The government has previously ruled out calls for foreign intervention, saying its beefed-up security forces could end the fighting. Authorities also rejected requests by foreign diplomats to visit the region. In footage shot over the weekend by Associated Press Television News, Indonesian soldiers were seen providing covering fire for Muslim fighters sprinting across a deserted street as they attacked a Christian neighborhood. The militants were armed with homemade weapons and army-issue Garand M1 carbines and Colt M-16 rifles. They also carried the SS-1, an Indonesian version of the Belgian-made FN 5.56 mm automatic rifle, which is only available to army troops in this country. Flames from dozens of burning buildings reached into the dark night sky above the war-ravaged town. As night fell, an army Saladin armored car rumbled into position, its turret and 75 mm cannon swiveling in the direction of the Christian neighborhood, in an apparent attempt to cover the withdrawal of the paramilitaries. Senior government officials in Jakarta have recently accused supporters of Indonesia's former dictator Suharto of inciting fighting in the Malukus in an attempt to destabilize Wahid's eight-month-old government. Defense Minister Juwono Sudarsono has blamed Muslim militants for stoking the sectarian war, saying that 10,000 paramilitaries had infiltrated the province in the past three months. Leaders of an armed Muslim militia known as Laskar Jihad, or Holy War Troops, have vowed to rid the islands of Christians. Most members come from Indonesia's central island of Java and its leaders have expressed support for Suharto, who is currently under investigation for massive corruption. Although Wahid's reformist government has tried to block the flow of militants to the Malukus, they were allowed to sail from the port of Surabaya in eastern Java. Western defense analysts have pointed out that the military region around Surabaya is under the command of Gen. Sudi Silahi, a Suharto loyalist who is seen as one of the main opponents of Wahid's efforts to assert civilian control over the army, which formed the main pillar of Suharto's 32-year dictatorship. Meanwhile in Sydney, U.S. Secretary of Defense William Cohen said the Clinton administration would look to its close ally Australia, just 1,000 kilometers (600 miles) south of Ambon, to provide leadership in forming policy on potential intervention in the region. Cohen did not rule out the possibility of the U.S. taking part in a peacekeeping effort. But his Australian counterpart, John Moore, noted that Indonesia has not requested foreign assistance. |
