JP/5/FKM

JP/5/FKM

Jail sentence sought for four suspected Maluku separatists

M. Azis Tunny
The Jakarta Post/Ambon

Prosecutors asked the Ambon District Court on Wednesday to
sentence four people, one of them an alleged member of the
separatist Maluku Sovereignty Front (FKM), to between 24 months
and 30 months in jail for treason.

In separate court sessions, prosecutors demanded a 30-month
prison sentence for Dominggus Pattiha, a member of the FKM, and
two-year sentences for the other three suspects, accused of being
FKM sympathizers. The three suspected sympathizers were
identified as Philips Patty, Rio Talabessy and Rizon Letomu.

During the court sessions, prosecutors charged the four
suspects with involvement in the celebration of the 54th
anniversary of the self-declared South Maluku Republic (RMS) in
Ambon on April 25.

The four were allegedly among the dozens of members and
sympathizers of the FKM, mostly Christians, who took part in an
anniversary ceremony in front of the house of the FKM's exiled
leader Alex Manuputty on Jl. DR. Kayadoe in Kudamati, Ambon.

The FKM members and supporters also took part in a rally that
drew the anger of Ambon's Muslims, who complained over the
police's apparent lack of action in cracking down on the
separatists.

Violence between Muslims and Christians flared up in the city
later on April 25, and lasted for several days. At least 35
people died in the violence and hundreds of others were wounded.

According to the Maluku administration, 536 buildings were
damaged in the violence, including a United Nations office, and
2,317 families comprising 10,684 people were forced to take
shelter in camps in Sirimau, Nusaniwe and Baguala Ambon Strait
districts.

The violence was the worst since a February 2002 pact ended
three years of religious fighting in which 5,000 people died.

According to prosecutors, by taking part in the rally and the
ceremony, the defendants caused chaos and threatened the unity of
Indonesia. Other alleged FKM members and sympathizers suspected
of participating in the rally are still being questioned by
prosecutors.

The FKM was set up in 2000 by Ambonese residents frustrated by
the central government's inability to end the religious violence
there that began in 1999.