Local leaders move to foster Maluku

Muhammad Nafik, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Traditional and community leaders from warring Christian and Muslim groups are striving to play a greater role in ending the religious fighting in Maluku and helping promote peace in the strife-torn islands.

They have agreed to quell all hatred, hostilities and suspicion between the two sides, which spread quickly amid the three-year conflict that resulted in the deaths of more than 6,000 people since 1999.

The agreement was reached in a five-day workshop held in Bogor. At least 16 traditional and community leaders from Ambon attended the meeting, which ended on Friday. It was the fourth forum to take place since 2000.

The participants, comprising eight Muslims and eight Christians, pledged to invite other traditional leaders to join their movement in halting the strife and fostering peace among their respective members.

They said security (or military) and legal measures were not enough to foster long-lasting peace in Maluku, and efforts to stop the violence needed the involvement of local traditional leaders who took a cultural approach.

"We are the heart of the people in Maluku. The key to settling the conflict is in the hands of local traditional leaders," Mahfudz Nukuhehe, a traditional leader from the Muslim area of Seith in Ambon, told a media conference in Jakarta after the meeting.

Asked why the traditional leaders had failed to take the lead in stopping the violence from worsening, he said: "Our role was restricted and communication was cut off amid the conflict". He did not elaborate further.

Mahfudz said the authorities should optimize the intensive involvement of Maluku's traditional leaders in finding an effective solution to the religious clashes.

"Traditional leaders reaffirm that all parties, including the government, should not be reluctant any longer to work with us, the indigenous people, to stop the violence and conflict in our beloved islands," said a statement released to the media after the workshop.

Muslim and Christian leaders signed a peace accord on Feb. 12, 2002, during talks brokered by the central government, which were held in the South Sulawesi town of Malino. But violence continued to rage on with sporadic attacks and bombings frequently taking place around the Maluku capital of Ambon.

Mahfudz said the traditional leaders had thrown their weight behind the Malino agreement, which consists of 11 points, including the disarmament of both warring groups, expulsion of militants and the launch of an investigation into the conflict.

Theresie Maitimu, a traditional leader from the Christian area of Passo, said relations between traditional leaders were severely damaged due to the conflict, making it impossible for them to communicate with each other.

"Harmonious relations were very strong before the conflict. But they were destroyed by irresponsible parties," she said, without mentioning any names.

The local leaders' role in dealing with the conflict between residents through traditional means was overturned after former dictator Soeharto's government issued Law No. 5/1979, which crippled their authority.

Under the law, the leaders were stripped of their status and were only recognized as village heads, meaning they had to comply with bureaucratic government regulations in dealing with community affairs.

Mahfudz criticized the law as a systematic move aimed at "destroying the traditional administration system", which had been proven effective in resolving conflicts among community members.