Maluku probe team told to listen to the people

Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

A non-governmental group working to find a comprehensive solution to religious conflicts in Ambon urged the government-sanctioned investigative team to listen to people's aspirations if it wanted to succeed.

"We all have the same aim, that is to end the Maluku conflict. The team should open itself to inputs from other groups that have been involved in finding ways to resolve the problems," coordinator of grassroots peace movement Baku Bae Maluku Ichsan Malik said here on Wednesday.

Ichsan said the national team should be put under the people's control to ensure the reliability of its results as it will affect Jakarta's next policy on Maluku, which has mostly employed military approaches since the conflict started in 1999.

Baku Bae submitted to the government in August 2000 its analysis of the root cause of the conflict, which highlighted the exploitation of religious issues by both civilian politicians and military personnel.

"As of now, the government has not given any response to the analysis. Instead, it set up an investigative team charged with dubious tasks," he added.

According to Ichsan, the situation in Ambon had worsened because of the tendency of Maluku people to rebel against Jakarta.

"And worse still, there is distortion of information on the facts of the conflict," he said.

The government announced earlier this month the establishment of an investigative team to probe human rights violations in the conflicts that had claimed more than 5,000 innocent lives.

The team, most of whose 14 members are civil servants, is particularly tasked with unraveling the first incident that sparked the conflict, several issues on separatism movements, and the existence of organized Muslim and Christian fighters, as well as other cases of violation and crimes against humanity.

Amiruddin al Rahab from the Institute for Policy Research and Advocacy (Elsam) said the rationale for appointing a Balinese Hindu as the team leader was misleading because it indicated the problem would again be blamed on religion.

"Locals put faith in the team to help them end the tiring conflicts. But, please, don't expect too much. I assume this team is nothing more than advisers to the coordinating minister's office specializing in Maluku issues, as it has not been given access to information from any institution and will only report to the coordinating minister office," he noted.