Concern, regrets over riots

Concern, regrets over riots

JAKARTA (JP): Tiptoeing around a potentially explosive issue,
government and religious leaders were circumspect in their
reaction to the bloody ethnic strife that rocked Jakarta on
Sunday with most expressing regrets and concerns on Monday.

The strongest reaction to the Ketapang incident, which left 14
people dead and saw 13 churches torched and damaged, instead came
from The Vatican.

"The Holy See is very worried about the as yet fragmentary
news reports that are arriving from Jakarta," Vatican spokesman
Joaquin Navarro-Valls told journalists, Reuters reported.

"We cannot but condemn the facts we have learned, which are
also harmful to Indonesia's traditional principles of tolerance,
guaranteed by its Constitution," he said.

In Jakarta, President B.J. Habibie expressed his deep concern
at the conflict, which saw mobs attacking people of Moluccan
ethnic origin and also rampaging crowds destroying churches and
Christian-run schools in and around the Ketapang district in
Central Jakarta.

Habibie pledged that the government would help to rebuild the
damaged properties.

Minister/State Secretary Akbar Tandjung said the incident was
the result of provocations by certain individuals who did not
wish to see political stability in the country.

However, he did not name the individuals.

"The President said he was very worried by the incident and
called on the whole nation to show restraint and not to be
provoked by rumors especially those related to religious
questions," Akbar said after meeting the President at Merdeka
Palace.

The Indonesian Bishops Conference (KWI), which began its
annual meeting on Monday, regretted the incident and called on
all religious communities not to be easily provoked by divisive
rumors.

"Such an incident could incite people to riot, and they will
become suspicious of one another..."

"As a nation, all religious communities should be open to
dialog to solve problems in a peaceful and fair manner," KWI
Chairman Monsignor Josef Suwatan said.

Cardinal Julius Darmaatmadja, the Jakarta Archbishop,
expressing regret said he suspected that the incident had been
organized to serve the political interests of certain parties.

"It's difficult for me to accept that these attacks on
churches were spontaneous reactions to a rumor that a small
mosque had been torched," he said.

If they were spontaneous, how could these attackers have come
from far away districts in Jakarta at such short notice, he
asked.

If these attacks were indeed premeditated, "this means that
the people have been exploited for political purposes. What's
even worse is that religious issues have been politicized.

"And if the incident was indeed planned, our sense of national
brotherhood is not as bad as we imagine it to be. But the
political play behind the incident is indeed serious," he said.

The Communion of Churches in Indonesia regretted the incident
not only because of the deaths and damage to these houses of
worship, but also because of the failure of the security
apparatus to prevent them.

"We are very deeply concerned because the incident occurred in
a country where equality of all citizens and their rights and
obligations are guaranteed by the law, and where the state is
obliged to protect its citizens," PGI Chairman Sularso Sopater
said.

He said he hoped the security apparatus would respond in a
firmer manner to such attacks on people and property in the
future.

He urged all religious communities to respect pluralism and to
promote mutual tolerance.

The Solus Populi Christian group in Jakarta expressed its deep
concern, noting that the incident bore similar hallmarks to past
attacks on churches in Situbondo, East Java, and Tasikmalaya,
West Java.

Hermawati E. Taslim, the group's chairperson, found it an
irony that the Ketapang incident took place two days after the
informal meeting of religious leaders at the residence of
Abdurrahman Wahid, chairman of largest Moslem organization
Nadhlatul Ulama, in Ciganjur, South Jakarta.

At that meeting, the religious leaders present warned about
certain people exploiting religion for political interests.

The Indonesian Ulemas Council said the incident had nothing to
do with religion-linked rivalries.

United Development Party Chairman Ismail Hasan Metareum urged
the government to investigate the tragedy thoroughly, especially
its masterminds.

Metareum said some of the rioters had removed PPP flags and
banners from the streets, and used them during the attacks,
giving the impression that some party members took part in the
riots. "That is utterly untrue," he said. (rms/prb/emb)