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.