Christians, Muslims meet for reconciliation in Maluku

Christians, Muslims meet for reconciliation in Maluku

YOGYAKARTA (JP): A total of 92 representatives from Christian
and Muslim groups in the Malukus joined the Baku Bae
reconciliation meeting here on Friday, pledging to commence
recovery efforts after two-years of violence in the strife-torn
region.

"The efforts include the establishment of two neutral
territories for economic and education activities in the Ambon
mayoralty," Ichsan Malik, the workshop facilitator, told media
here.

The meeting, involving an equal number of Christians and
Muslims, also agreed to hold a peace conference for Maluku
citizens in March 2001, and to establish civilian peacekeepers
for the neutral zones.

Ichsan said the Maluku people are tired of fighting.

"We've conducted a survey involving 1,300 Christians and 1,200
Muslims across the Maluku islands and they all said that they
wanted to end this violence with 'Baku Bae' (reconciliation)," he
said.

The group claimed that at least 8,000 people have been killed
in the Malukus since violence broke out on Jan. 19, 1999 at the
downtown border of Batu Merah-Mardika, in the capital of Ambon.

"The workshop has also discussed the possibility of
establishing a fact-finding team to investigate principal cases,
including the Jan. 19, 1999 incident," Ichsan added during the
group's first joint media briefing.

The meeting is scheduled to be completed on Monday.

Among the participants are chairman of the Latupati (village
association) in Leihitu area, Mahfud Ngukulele, who is also chief
of Seith village, and Latupati chairwoman in the Baguala area,
Theresia Maitimu, who is also head of Passo village.

Yogyakarta's Monarch, who is also the Yogyakarta Governor, Sri
Sultan Hamengkubuwono X said in his address that humans are
created with differences but those must be the starting point for
building a dialogue between people.

"Therefore Maluku people may lose everything, except hope. You
must not loose your hope to reconcile," Hamengkubuwono said after
reading Maluku's peaceful Pela Gandong rhyme.

Ichsan further said that, based on the field data, the roots
of the Maluku problems mostly came from external factors that
forced people to be involved in the conflicts.

"Exploitation of religion and politics by both military and
political elites, plus information distortion, resulted in this
destruction," he said.

This is the third of such reconciliation meetings, following
previous discussions held in Jakarta early last August, and in
Denpasar's capital of Bali in October, Rev. Piet Manopo, one of
the Christian representatives said.

The group had also met with President Abdurrahman Wahid on
Oct. 28 in accordance with the commemoration of Youth Pledge Day.

"Maluku is currently in the process of destruction. The
toughest part is to alter the people's character from those that
are full of bitterness and violence, to those that are
constructive," Manopo said.

Strong law enforcement is needed to restore order in the area,
he added.

"We hope that through this reconciliation effort, conflicting
camps eventually realize that we are being used against each
other and, therefore, should stop the violence.

"Without that, fighting will easily spark," M. Yusuf Ely, a
Muslim representative, said. (swa/edt)