Fifteen provinces prone to conflict

Moch. H. Kurniawan, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Indonesia has 15 provinces that are the most vulnerable to religious and ethnic conflicts, the Ministry of Defense revealed on Tuesday.

"Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam, Maluku, Central Sulawesi, South Sulawesi and East Nusa Tenggara are among the regions prone to conflict," Col. (ret) Tri Wahyu Wibowo, head of the defense research team at the ministry, was quoted by Antara as saying after a discussion in Palu, Central Sulawesi.

According to him, the mapping of conflict areas was a result of research conducted by a number of experts.

Wibowo said the team members had traveled to the areas that had the potential for conflict to find out the basic problems there.

"All input from the public in the regions with the potential for conflict will be formulated to find the best solution in handling problems there," he said.

Last week, Brussels-based International Crisis Group (ICG) issued a warning that communal conflict, military-police rivalry and corruption could turn Flores island in East Nusa Tenggara province into another hot spot in the Indonesian archipelago.

"Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam, Papua, Maluku and Poso (in Central Sulawesi) may be the hot spots now, but some of the factors fueling those conflicts have the potential to cause violence elsewhere in Indonesia," Sidney Jones, director of ICG's Indonesia projects, was quoted by Deutsche Presse-Agentur as saying.

Decades-old separatist movements have plagued Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam and Papua provinces, whereas sectarian clashes have been rife in Maluku and Poso since 1999.

All four hot spots are rich in natural resources, and are the bases for large detachments of Indonesian Military and police forces, ostensibly there to keep the peace but in fact, according to the ICG analysis, forming a major source of the insecurity.

Activists and experts have accused military and police officers of trying to maintain the conflicts as they have controlled businesses in Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam, Maluku, Poso and Papua.

They urged both the police and the military to concentrate on their duties to safeguard the people and abandon their businesses.

At the discussion, participants stressed that reform of the Indonesian Military (TNI) and the National Police was imperative because both institutions had been causing problems in the conflict areas, rather than protecting the people.