Govt to lift Maluku civil emergency

Govt to lift Maluku civil emergency

A'an Suryana, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The government will lift the state of civil emergency that was
imposed on Maluku three years ago because of fighting between
Muslims and Christians, a minister said on Tuesday.

Coordinating Minister for Political and Security Affairs
Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said the state of emergency would be
lifted on Friday when Minister of Home Affairs Hari Sabarno
swears in new Maluku Governor Sinyo Harry Sarundajang.

"The state of emergency in Maluku will be formally revoked on
Friday," Susilo said in Jakarta.

Officials and analysts have said last month's trouble-free
gubernatorial election in Maluku was evidence the province was
safe and no longer in need of the emergency status.

The government placed the provinces of Maluku and North Maluku
under a state of civil emergency in June 2000 after religious
violence broke out in the Maluku capital of Ambon on Jan. 19,
1999.

The state of emergency in North Maluku was lifted in May of
this year due to improvements in the political and security
situation there.

Susilo said he hoped the lifting of the civil emergency in
Maluku would not disrupt efforts to maintain security and enforce
the law.

Some 6,000 people died during the three years of violence in
Maluku and North Maluku, while hundreds of thousands of others
were forced to flee their homes.

The bloody conflict ended after a government-brokered peace
pact was signed by leaders of the two warring parties in February
2002. However, there continue to be sporadic outbreaks of
violence.

More than 80 percent of the country's 212 million people are
Muslim. But in some eastern regions, including the Malukus,
Christians make up about half the population.