Fact-finding team visits Ambon after 11 killed

Fact-finding team visits Ambon after 11 killed

JAKARTA (JP): Just as violence over the weekend killed 11
people in two islands to the east of Ambon, the capital of Maluku
province, a government fact-finding team arrived in the capital
on Sunday.

Antara reported Monday that the team sent by President B.J.
Habibie was led by Maj. Gen. (ret.) Jose Muskita, a former
secretary to the vice president, along with members of the Maluku
community Des Alwi and K. Kaplale.

Communal clashes have in the past month killed 105 people,
according to police, not including the casualties reported on
Sunday from the islands of Haruku and Saparua.

Muskita said after meeting deputy governor Paula Renyaan that
suspicions within the community still existed, "because of the
loss of lives and property which was previously unthinkable."

He said input from the younger generation, as well as from
community leaders and civilian and military officials, would be
crucial to establishing future policies in the province.

A similar team from the House of Representatives has also
visited the province. Legislator La Ode Djeni Hasmar said
thousands of natives of Southeast Sulawesi had returned to seek
safety in their home villages, but many no longer had family
there because they had long settled in Ambon.

The agency reported from Kendari in Southeast Sulawesi that
around 5,000 students who had fled home from Maluku may no longer
be able to continue studies as their parents could not afford it.

They were among 15,000 migrants from Buton and Muna regencies
in Southeast Sulawesi who had settled in Maluku province.

"It's even hard for them to eat, many only brought the clothes
on their backs," said Mety Djamaluddin Safa'a, director of the
Community Research and Development Institute (LP2M), a non-
governmental organization in Kendari.

Mety urged assistance to be given to the students, including
the relaxing by of tuition fees by school management bodies.

The head of the office of the Ministry of Education and
Culture, Abdul Kadir Gani, said scholarships were being proposed
to students whose parents were killed in the clashes.

Meanwhile from Lhokseumawe, North Aceh it was reported that a
woman, Ti Aisyah, 41, was shot by two unknown men in her home in
Meuria Paoloh in Muara Dua district. As of Monday she was still
under hospital treatment. A local correspondent quoted military
commander Lt. Col. Giyono as saying that a relative of the victim
was likely a former informant of the military.

On Monday East Timor was again tense following the murder of
a resident in the district of East Dili on Sunday.

Bendito V. Pirres, 25, of the Bairopite subdistrict,
was one of many guarding their villages when he was shot in the
left cheek. East Timor police chief Col. GM Timbul Silaen said on
Monday that police suspect a pro-integration group as being
responsible for the killing.

In Demak, Central Java, crowds destroyed 30 homes on Sunday
night because of anger over the village head elections. One
hundred residents from the Betahwalang village in Bonang district
sought shelter in neighboring areas.

Demak police chief Lt. Col. RML Tampubolon said the destroyed
houses were those of supporters of the village head who won the
election. He said there were no casualties and that the evacuees
feared threats that they would be killed. (anr/har/33)