Tension down; Ambon still fears snipers
Azis Tunny and Slamet Susanto, Ambon/Yogyakarta
A high-powered government team arrived in Ambon on Wednesday, as people from the provincial capital of Maluku again became segregated along religious lines.
The visiting government team -- coordinating minister for political and security affairs ad interim Hari Sabarno, Indonesian Military (TNI) Commander Gen. Endriartono Sutarto and National Police chief Gen. Da'i Bachtiar -- met dozens of local leaders during the one-day visit, to seek an end to renewed violence that has caused the death of more than 30 people since Sunday.
After the meeting, Hari promised that the government would continue its policy of quelling the separatist movement in the spice islands. The South Maluku Republic (RMS) movement has been blamed for inciting unrest by holding a ceremony and rally to mark its 54th anniversary on Sunday, but residents and religious leaders have also criticized the police for failing effectively to prevent the annual commemoration.
The government team stayed for only a few hours at the airport and flew back again to Jakarta, raising concern that it might not have obtained first-hand information on what was really going on in the coastal town.
Police had arrested 32 members of the separatist Maluku Sovereignty Front (FKM) as of Wednesday, but they have yet to explain why they allowed the rally to occur. The sight of RMS supporters guarded by police angered bystanders, which led to stone-throwing and arson before victims fell, many of them with gunshot wounds.
However, data from sources compiled by the Jakarta-based Indonesian Communion of Churches (PGI) Crisis Center is that the rally was not planned, but that a few hundred RMS supporters, who carried flags, followed police who were escorting FKM secretary- general Moses Tuanakotta to the police station, thereby creating the impression of a rally.
By Wednesday the violence had subsided but many were still afraid to venture out for fear of snipers, who had even targeted two police officers on Monday. Police say they are investigating the information on the existence of unidentified snipers.
While Muslims and Christians rubbed shoulders in public again after 2002, since Sunday the divisions became clear again. The website of Maluku Media Center, an information center in Ambon run by the Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI), reported on Wednesday that markets were again segregated, similar to the situation that followed the original bloodshed in 1999 that left thousands dead.
Hundreds of traders in Mardika market, considered a neutral area, have moved to other markets in their communities: Muslim traders moved to Batumerah, while Christian traders shifted their activities to Batu Meja market.
There was fighting of a much lesser scale in a number of areas. A Nazareth church and a dwelling were burned down in Karangpanjang.
Two more fatalities were reported on Wednesday, bringing the death toll to 32. Meanwhile, 16 more people were injured, bringing the number of people injured as of Wednesday to 202. Police, however, listed 36 people as dead, including two of their own officers.
Meanwhile, a Maluku provincial government spokeswoman claimed that more than 1,000 Christians protested at police headquarters to demand that soldiers from outside Ambon be withdrawn.
"They say witnesses saw members of the TNI (armed forces) were involved in the torching of the Nazareth church," the spokeswoman was quoted as saying by AFP.
Separately, in Yogyakarta, hundreds of Muslim students from Maluku slammed the RMS for provoking the riots.
The students demanded firm action against RMS members and demanded that Maluku Police chief Brig.Gen. Bambang Sutrisno acknowledge responsibility for what occurred.
The government lifted the state of civil emergency in Maluku last year, but it has yet to resolve the issue of thousands of refugees who remain homeless and unemployed, factors that observers have said are potential sources of trouble.