Law enforcement most vital step for Maluku

Law enforcement most vital step for Maluku

Yogita Tahilramani, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Stricter law enforcement through the disarmament of militant
groups from the two warring factions -- Muslim and Christian --
in the strife-torn province of Maluku is badly needed to help
stop the three-year sectarian conflict in the area.

Sociologist Ignas Kleden underlined the importance of stricter
law enforcement because it constituted the key to the settlement
of the conflicts.

It was up to law enforcers to disarm militant groups in
Maluku, he told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.

Ignas made the remarks in response to a peace agreement
reached by the two opposing factions in Malino, about 70
kilometers to the northeast of the South Sulawesi provincial
capital of Makassar on Tuesday.

The agreement, which was designed to end the violence in
Maluku, rejects the presence of all militias, including the
Muslim militant group, Laskar Jihad. It was the latter that, with
the reported blessing of security forces, sent thousands of
fighters to Maluku in May 2000.

The peace deal also calls for an independent inquiry into the
activities of Laskar Jihad as well as into two Christian
separatist movements -- the Front for the Sovereignty of Maluku
and the South Maluku Republic (RMS).

The pact says all unauthorized armed groups should surrender
their weapons or be disarmed.

The fact, however, was that "the officers sometimes do not
have the will to disarm the militant groups due to vested
interests or due to certain factors .... The officer might be a
Christian and told to disarm the Christian groups which he
supports, for instance. Or officers might not be courageous
enough to disarm militant members," Ignas said.

"The officers need to bridge (religious) differences between
themselves first ... before taking action against militants," he
reminded.

Another sociologist Thamrin Amal Tomagola shared Ignas'
remarks, saying that those who instigated the violence in Maluku
should be tried in court but not in the "near future".

"Muslims and Christians who instigated violence in Maluku
should be tried, but not now and not in the near future," Thamrin
said, adding that a certain amount of trust should be encouraged
and allowed to develop between the rival communities before
people were tried for violence in Maluku.

"Trying Muslims or Christians in Maluku courts now would prove
to be disastrous ... past experience has taught us this," he
said.

Thamrin was referring to the fact that like Maluku, Central
Sulawesi also was plagued by religious rivalries between the
Christian and Muslim communities, particularly in Poso.

The conflict, which was on the verge of resolution, suddenly
exploded into full-blown violence when the Palu District Court
sentenced three Christians, charged for their role in the bloody
violence of Poso, to death in April 2001.

The death sentences sparked fresh violence in Poso because
Christians regarded the sentences as biased, as Muslims had not
been tried.

In comparison, not a single person has been sentenced to jail
over the three-year Maluku sectarian violence, which has
reportedly claimed over 6,000 lives and displaced at least
700,000 people.

Failure to uphold the law in court is mainly caused by the
fact that most of Maluku's judges and prosecutors fled from the
province during the violence. The judges and prosecutors who
remained sometimes could not deliver proper verdicts, Thamrin
said.

"If the judge or prosecutor is Muslim, for instance, and the
defendant is Christian, an appropriate verdict will not be
issued. Likewise, if the judge is Christian and the defendant is
a Muslim, again, a proper verdict is not issued ... hundreds of
cases have piled up in the courts. The courts have been paralyzed
due to the conflicts."

The National Police Headquarters stated in 2000 that nearly
900 suspects had been arrested over the sectarian violence, but
there was no way that the trials could be held due to the limited
availability of judges, court clerks and prosecutors.

The government's fear of the militant groups also seemed to
play a role in the failure in bringing such cases to court.

A classic example is the release of Laskar Jihad Ahlus Sunnah
Wal Jamaah commander Ja'far Umar Thalib, a murder suspect, from
police custody on June 13 last year. Ja'far was arrested in May
last year at Juanda Airport in Surabaya, East Java, on charges of
inciting religious violence and ordering the murder of one of his
followers, Abdullah, who was stoned to death in Maluku earlier
last year for adultery.

National Police spokesman Insp. Gen. Saleh Saaf said on
Wednesday that the case was still being processed by the National
Police.

"We are still collecting evidence to build a case," Saleh told
The Post.