Maluku meeting set for Feb. 11
Jupriadi, The Jakarta Post, Makassar
The two warring factions in Maluku are to hold a reconciliation meeting in the South Sulawesi town of Malino on Feb. 11 and Feb. 12, 2002, to end the prolonged sectarian conflict that has claimed more than 6,000 human lives.
Peace talks scheduled for between Feb. 5 and Feb. 7, 2002, have been delayed for a week to give an opportunity for the two warring factions to inform the public of the planned meeting.
"The agreement on the date for the peace talks was settled after a tiring, long meeting with figures representing the two factions in Ambon," Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare Jusuf Kalla said, upon his arrival here from Ambon on Wednesday.
The minister said all 70 delegates were expected to arrive in Makassar on Sunday and would hold a second meeting in the city to make final preparations prior to moving to Malino for the peace talks.
"The two warring groups will each have 35 delegates who are considered representative," he said, citing he and Coordinating Minister for Political and Security Affairs, who arrived in the city on Monday, would be representing the government.
Maluku Governor Saleh Latuconsina, the South Sulawesi governor and other Maluku officials were also scheduled to participate in the two-day peace talks.
Malino has been chosen as a neutral place for the two warring factions because it is relatively far from Maluku. The recent peace talks between Poso Muslims and Christians were also held in the town last December.
The small town, located 70 kilometers northwest of the city, was also the location for historic talks between Indonesian and the then-Dutch rulers in June, 1946 to discuss and prepare the division of Indonesia's federal states.
Asked about the main issues to be discussed at the peace talks, Minister Kalla said the meeting's main agenda was to discuss how to stop the violence and end the conflict.
He acknowledged that he had yet to have his own formula for the meeting because the conflict was far more complicated than in Poso, because it was ongoing and had claimed in total around 6,000 human lives.
He called on everybody in Maluku to fully support the meeting to end the conflict and let the province catch up with the rest of the country.
"If the conflict cannot be solved in the next year or so, we will loose Maluku and the province known for its rich natural resources will suffer a major setback," he said.
Asked about the presence of Laskar Jihad in the peace talks, Kalla said it should not be questioned because they were not part of the problem in Maluku.
"If Laskar Jihad's presence in the meeting is questioned, Muslims in Maluku will also question the presence of South Maluku Society (RMS) and the Maluku Sovereignty Forum (FKM) in the province," he said.
Separately, Governor Latuconsina called on the people in the province to support the planned Malino peace talks and to end the prolonged conflict.
"All sides should give their full political support for the peace talks to end the prolonged enmity. It would be quite strange if there were groups who opposed the reconciliation meeting," he said.
Some 30 Muslim Maluku students held a demonstration in the city on Tuesday to oppose the meeting, which they said would not solve the problem.
According to them, the government should first take strict action against RMS and FKM, which are alleged to have aggravated the conflict.