M. Taufiqurrahman

M. Taufiqurrahman
The Jakarta Post
Jakarta

A senior United Nations official in Jakarta said on Monday that
economic hardships contributed greatly to the outbreak of a spate
of sectarian conflicts in the country, and that the world body
had committed itself to improving the livelihood of those people
affected by the conflicts.

Head of the Office for the Coordination of the Humanitarian
Affairs (OCHA) Michael Elmquist said despite a myriad of problems
that had ignited sectarian conflicts in Poso, Central Sulawesi,
Sambas, West Kalimantan and Maluku, in the end, most of them
boiled down to economic problems.

"Saying that ethnic or religious affinity is the primary cause
of the conflicts is too simplistic an explanation, because the
underlying cause builds up when a certain group are marginalized
by the presence of other groups that pose challenges towards its
domination," he told a seminar to commemorate the International
Day of Peace here.

Consequently, most of the projects undertaken by the UN and
concerned non-governmental organizations in support of peace-
building efforts were aimed at improving the livelihood of the
victims of the conflict, he said.

"Simply put, when a village population is busily engaged in a
food-for-work project, they do not have the time nor inclination
to start fighting the neighboring village," he said.

Currently, several UN agencies are making efforts to build
peace in a number of regions that were ravaged by sectarian
conflicts.

The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) is conducting a
large-scale recovery program for Maluku and North Maluku, which
involves over 50 individual projects totaling US$12.5 million.

The UN's Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) is presently
providing livelihood support to resettle internally displaced
persons in North Maluku province, while OCHA is ensuring
effective coordination among agencies involved in the peace-
building campaign.

The UN official made a note, however, that building peace in
such a volatile environment could not be accomplished overnight.

For example, he said sectarian clashes in Ambon recurred even
after both sides agreed to sign a peace accord, and that this
pointed to a need to involve the grass roots in the peace
process.

After the fall of the Soeharto regime, bloody sectarian
conflicts broke out in a number of areas where religious or
ethnic groups were evenly distributed within the population.

The sectarian conflict in Maluku has taken its toll with the
deaths of up to 6,000 people and displacing more than 350,000
others. In neighboring Poso, the conflict between Muslims and
Christians has killed some 2,000 people.

"It is more efficient to start at grassroots level, but be
persistent and let the process take the time it needs," Elmquist
said.