Govt urged to review emergency status in Maluku

Govt urged to review emergency status in Maluku

Oktavianus Pinontoan
The Jakarta Post
Ambon

Ambon Mayor Jopie Papilaja has asked the central government to
review the state of civil emergency that has been in place there
for two years, saying the emergency status had failed to remedy
the situation.

However, Maluku Governor Saleh Latuconsina signaled that he
would not recommend the central government cancel the emergency
status for the time being.

Jopie said the state of civil emergency should be annulled
because it was ineffective in calming the situation and restoring
security.

"I see the state of civil emergency as being ineffective
because it focuses on institutions and not on the conflict
itself, so its results do not match the reality in the field," he
said on Saturday.

He said the state of emergency administrators had passed
numerous policies to end the conflict, but the reality on the
streets was that the human tragedy had not ended.

"All of the policies have not been fully implemented because
they failed to win the support of all the high-ranking officials
in the province," he said.

Jopie said now was the time for the central government to
evaluate the state of emergency, with the situation in Ambon
gradually returning to normal.

Governor Saleh Latuconsina, however, said he would not
recommend a lifting of the state of emergency.

The governor, with other officials, regularly evaluates the
security situation in the province.

"I have been given the authority to carry out my tasks as
governor and simultaneously as head of the state of civil
emergency, although my term ended on Nov. 11," he said, adding
that his term had been extended by a month because of the
increasing tension in the area.

Minister of Home Affairs Hari Sabarno, who visited Ambon on
Nov. 10, extended Latuconsina's term of office until Dec. 11.
Before this date, the minister is expected to appoint a caretaker
whose main task will be to prepare a gubernatorial election.

The election has been delayed by a string of violent attacks
and bombings in the province over the past three months.

Latuconsina said earlier that it was difficult to end the
conflict because it involved all of society, including the local
police and military.

"It was impossible to end the conflict by deploying battalions
of military personnel because it was impossible to enforce the
law since the security authorities were divided," he said,
recalling the past situation in the province.

He said that long before Alex Manuputty, chairman of the South
Maluku Republic separatist movement, was arrested, he had asked
the police to apprehend Lasjkar Jihad commander Djafar Umar
Thalib, but they declined to do so.

As part of the Malino peace agreement, an independent team led
by I Wayan Karya, a staff member at the Office of the
Coordinating Minister for Political and Security Affairs, is
investigating all the acts of violence in the province since the
conflict erupted on Jan 19, 1999.