The toughest question to answer<\/p>\n
By Budiman Moerdijat<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): Some three months after clashes between Muslims
\nand Christians first broke out in the Maluku capital of Ambon in
\nmid-January, a local Muslim leader told The Jakarta Post that the
\nhardest question to answer was "how to put the pieces back
\ntogether?"<\/p>\n
Some eight months later, the very same question is still being
\nasked as violent communal clashes have only intensified in a
\nprovince once dubbed by former president B.J. Habibie as a model
\nof interreligious harmony.<\/p>\n
Almost 1,000 people have been killed this year in a series of
\nreligious and ethnic clashes in the province, while tens of
\nthousands have fled to other provinces.<\/p>\n
Not withstanding underlying friction which may have been
\nsimmering before, the tragic conflict was sparked by what people
\ncan consider today a trivial argument between a public
\ntransportation driver and a youth in the Ambon main market of
\nMardika during the Idul Fitri holiday on Jan. 19.<\/p>\n
Arguments are commonplace in everyday life, but the fact that
\npeople in Ambon underline that the driver was a Christian and the
\nyouth a Muslim demonstrates the simmering feelings.<\/p>\n
Strange as it may be, this side-issue degenerated into a full-
\nscale riot in the city on Jan. 20, and since then Ambon has
\nintermittently become a war zone.<\/p>\n
The government said the first wave of riots in January in
\nAmbon and on other nearby islands claimed at least 61 lives and
\nleft over 758 houses, 12 mosques, 13 churches and hundreds of
\nshops and kiosks burned or damaged.<\/p>\n
Habibie in early February ordered the immediate reconstruction
\nof Ambon and sent his ministers to the area.<\/p>\n
But the tension did not cease, and renewed religious clashes
\nerupted not only in Ambon but also on the nearby islands of
\nKairatu and Seram in mid-February and early March.<\/p>\n
The continual clashes prompted former governor of the National
\nResilience Institute Lt. Gen. Agum Gumelar to call in early March
\nfor the establishment of a demarcation line to separate
\nconflicting parties in the province.<\/p>\n
At almost the same time, former military chief Gen. Wiranto
\nset up and sent a team of 19 Maluku-born officers, led by then
\nWirabuana military commander Maj. Gen. Suaidi Marasabessy, to
\nforge peace in Maluku.<\/p>\n
A brigade of troops was also deployed to Maluku and another
\nbattalion of riot troops was sent to quell renewed clashes in the
\nSoutheast Maluku capital of Tual and other nearby islands.<\/p>\n
Wiranto made these decisions only days after he fired former
\nMaluku Police chief Col. Karyono and extended indefinitely the
\ntour of duty of Suaidi's team in April.<\/p>\n
By then, more than 350 people had already been killed.<\/p>\n
There was a glimmer of hope when 10,000 people attended the
\nsigning of a peace accord by dozens of local religious and
\ncommunity leaders in Ambon on May 13.<\/p>\n
The ceremony took place in front of the governor's office in
\nMerdeka Square, and Wiranto and a number of high-ranking military
\nofficers from Jakarta were among the attendants.<\/p>\n
Wiranto at the time announced that Maluku would be given a
\nseparate military command for the first time in 15 years. In
\n1984, Maluku and Irian Jaya were brought under the supervision of
\nthe Trikora Military Command.<\/p>\n
Wiranto said the reestablishment of a Maluku military command
\nwas expected to help promote peace in the province.<\/p>\n
But hopes were dashed when fresh violence erupted just two
\ndays later.<\/p>\n
The violence, in which seven people were killed, broke out
\nwhen former Army chief Gen. Subagyo Hadisiswoyo was in the city
\nto preside over the inauguration of the new military command.<\/p>\n
A second wave of violence resumed in late July and local
\npolice said in September that more than 200 had been killed in
\nthe two-month period.<\/p>\n
This second wave of violence was worse than the previous
\nincidents as warring parties were seen using military-issue
\nweapons and ammunition.<\/p>\n
The House of Representatives working commission on Maluku,
\nwhich was set up earlier this month, has urged the Indonesian
\nMilitary (TNI) to investigate the source of the weapons used in
\nthe clashes.<\/p>\n
The protracted Maluku violence finally compelled newly elected
\nPresident Abdurrahman Wahid and Vice President Megawati
\nSoekarnoputri to visit Ambon on Dec. 12.<\/p>\n
The two leaders then issued a joint appeal to the Maluku
\npeople to stop the bloody clashes.<\/p>\n
Speaking in front of about 300 representatives of various
\ngroups at Governor Saleh Latuconsina's office, the President
\ninsisted it was up to local people to end the conflict.<\/p>\n
However, hopes that Abdurrahman's visit to Ambon would usher
\nin an era of peace quickly faded when renewed violence broke out
\nthe next day on Seram island. Three people were killed and four
\nwere injured in this episode.<\/p>\n
"Nobody wins in this madness," Yusuf Elly, a local Muslim
\nleader, said in April, adding that "the hardest job now is
\nputting the pieces back together".<\/p>\n
But even before that, people must somehow figure out how to
\nmake sense of the escalating tension in which more than 60 have
\nbeen killed within 72 hours. (byg)<\/p>",
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