Ex-Bombmaker turns peacemaker

Ex-Bombmaker turns peacemaker

Pandaya, The Jakarta Post, Ambon

News mixing with rumors about loved ones being killed, houses
ransacked and places of worship attacked swept across Ambon like
a hurricane.

Nervous, everybody in Christian and Muslim neighborhoods
prepared for war -- in the name of religion. They wielded
weapons, erected road barricades and examined strangers'
identity.

"My job was helping men make crude bombs and slingshots," said
Baihajar Tualeka with a wry smile as she recalled the early days
of sectarian conflict in Ambon in 1999.

Then the opposing Muslim and Christian mobs armed with
machetes, molotov cocktails, catapults and stones screaming
battle cries fought in the streets. The police officers, way
outnumbered, could do little to stop the riot.

"Rival residents traded molotov cocktails, raining each other
with stones. It was a horrifying scene indeed," said Bai, as the
28-year-old Muslim is affectionately called.

Like everybody else in Ambon, she saw the conflict as a
crusade, believing that if they got killed, they would go
straight to heaven.

"Everyone of us, men, women, adults and children, were so
overpowered by that overzealous perception that we would do
dangerous things like making crude bombs, guns and molotov
cocktails."

But, thank God, there eventually came the fateful day that
changed her mind-set for good. It was the day when she saw a man
being brutally lynched to death after he was captured by a rival
mob.

"Since then I haven't been able to stop wondering what all
this conflict is about and why people cut each others' throats in
the name of religion?" she recalled.

"All the killing, burning and rape that became the order the
day only convinced me that all the violence was generated by
certain groups who manipulated the conflict for their own ends."

It was this newfound awareness that led Bai, born in the
Central Maluku subdistrict of Pelau on Feb. 4, 1974, to join
forces with others from both communities who shared the same
concern. Late in 1999, they started Lembaga Mitra Berkarya (LMB),
a forum aimed at promoting peaceful coexistence.

After all the efforts to bring peace and order back to Ambon
turned futile, she cofounded the Institute for Empowerment of
Women and Children (Lappan) focusing on helping the education of
children at refugee camps and providing counseling for the
traumatized displaced people from both the Christian and Muslim
communities.

Lappan has become part of Care the Children Network (JPA), a
lose forum of numerous local non-governmental organizations, the
church and Koran recital (Pengajian) groups.

JPA activists -- Bai is one -- cling to the belief that
through children, the message of peace is easy to convey because,
unlike adults, they generally do not harbor religious hatred.

"Children are the best agents of change," as Bai puts it.

Now studying agriculture at Pattimura State University and one
of the 11 core activists of the interreligious Center for Peace
Building Studies (PSPP), Bai thinks that conflict is only
"natural" but must be properly managed so that it results in
better understanding of each other instead of enmity.

Assisted by the United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef) and
international non-governmental organizations, PSPP had its first
six activists, three Christians and three Muslims, trained in
Yogyakarta in 2001.

"We have special concern for children because they have to
bear the brunt of the conflict even though they know nothing
about it," Bai said.

The three-year-old sectarian conflict has forced thousands of
children to live in makeshift barracks in various camps erected
for the displaced families across Maluku.

"A great number of children have dropped out of school because
their parents lost their homes and their jobs. Nobody will take
responsibility for the children's future," she said.

The painful efforts to bring peace and order back to Ambon
have brought about an encouraging degree of success despite the
occasional violent incidents.

In central and southeast Maluku regencies, Christians and
Muslims have begun to mix, thanks to the efforts of the
activists.

The peace activists have been trying to build awareness in the
community that the conflict has been engineered by outside
forces.

They strongly assert that the Maluku civil emergency
administrator should reduce military presence in Maluku and
entrust the peace-building process to civilians.

"People don't see the use for the deployment of dozens of
companies (each consisting of 100 soldiers) with dubious missions
in Ambon," Bai said.

The government's credibility in handling the conflict in
Maluku has been ebbing after the numerous peace deals it had
brokered crumbled.

"The best statement came from Dr. Farid (an assistant to the
coordinating minister for people's welfare) that the government
wants to end the conflict and resettle all refugees by the end of
2002. We will see if his statement is credible," she said.