Local leaders move to foster Maluku

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.