Group demands the release of 180 Ambonese in police custody

JAKARTA (JP): Members of the Ambonese community group Voice of the Moluccan People Front on Tuesday called for the immediate release of more than 180 Ambonese taken into protective police custody during the bloody Ketapang incident.

Group spokesman William Latuheru said the young men were evacuated by security personnel during the Nov. 22 clash between local residents and guards of amusement centers on Jl. K.H. Zainul Arifin in West Jakarta.

The men, who were also guards at the establishments, were sheltered at the headquarters of the National Police's Mobile Brigade unit in the Kelapa Dua area, south of here.

"According to the police, they were evacuated, not detained. But why they have yet to be released?" said William, whose nephew was among 14 people killed in the incident.

He said they should be returned to the care of their families.

"We promise to keep an eye on them and teach them to maintain unity."

Many of the dozens of people attending the conference at the Arafuru Maluku restaurant in Central Jakarta wore traditional red-and-black Ambonese clothes.

When asked to comment on the men's detention, Jakarta Police spokesman Lt. Col. Edward Aritonang said most had been released several days ago.

"Only a few of them are still in police detention and will be brought to court for damaging houses and stabbings," Aritonang told The Jakarta Post later in the evening.

The officer refused to reveal the precise number to be tried because he feared it could cause further discord.

Aritonang insisted the police had not detained the men. "Instead, most of them asked police help for protection."

William demanded a thorough investigation into the Ketapang incident in which five men of Ambonese descent died.

"We want the murderers of our relatives to be arrested and the cause of the riot to be revealed. So far it's still unclear."

The group plans to lodge complaints with the Jakarta Legal Aid Institute and National Commission on Human Rights.

Group members were upset by use of the term "Ambonese hoodlums" by television stations and some print media to describe the amusement center guards.

"Our relatives are not hoodlums. They work and are paid daily as security guards of the amusement center," William said.

The incident was politically engineered by particular groups and had nothing to do with ethnicity or religion, he added.

The Ambonese group condemned any vandalism against mosques, churches and other religious buildings.

"We have a tradition in Maluku of being tolerant of other religions. There are Moslems and Christians living in harmony in Maluku," William said.

On Monday at Jakarta Police headquarters, representatives of Ketapang residents reached an agreement with members of the Ambonese community in Jakarta to bar against a repeat of the incident.

The riot unfolded following a rumor, later found to be baseless, that people of Ambonese descent had burned a local mosque. Residents went on the rampage, burning churches and ransacking buildings.

Material losses, particularly to churches and schools, are believed to number in the hundreds of million rupiah. (jun)