Maluku violence due to lack of law enforcement

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The prospect of lasting peace in Maluku has once again shattered by Sunday morning's deadly attack in the capital of Ambon.

The fate of the Malino II peace agreement for Maluku is again at stake as the government considers the idea of imposing martial law in the province.

Vice President Hamzah Haz suggested on Monday that the team which drafted the Malino II peace accord evaluate the post- agreement situation in Maluku.

The team's recommendations, he said, could be to elevate the province's status from that of a civil emergency to one of martial law.

National Police chief Da'i Bachtiar said the government might impose martial law if the security situation in Maluku deteriorated.

"If the situation continues to move like this, it could be stepped up, but not at this moment," Da'i said.

He added that more troops were being readied for dispatch to Maluku.

Despite there being no request from the province, the government could deploy the additional troops if it deemed the move necessary, he added.

However, imposing martial law would not solve the problem as it has been the lack of law enforcement that has sparked all the volatility in Maluku, observers said.

As of now, not a single person has been prosecuted for the violence that killed some 6,000 people and displaced at least 700,000 others since 1999.

Now, once again, the central government's wishy-washy attitude towards the legal situation in Maluku has proven to be fatal.

Some 12 people were killed and a dozen others injured on Sunday when a gang of masked raiders stormed the village of Soya, in a hilly region five kilometers from Maluku's capital, Ambon.

Many blame the hardline Laskar Jihad Muslim organization and the South Maluku Republic (RMS) separatist organization for the latest violence. Laskar Jihad has denied the accusation.

However, sociologist Thamrin Amal Tomagola suspected that outsiders were using the RMS as a vehicle to ruin the peace agreement, and prolong the conflict in the province.

"It's like there is a plot to magnify the RMS issue, just like it was with GAM (the Aceh separatist movement)," Thamrin said,

Syafii Ma'arif, chairman of the second largest Muslim group in the country, Muhammadiyah, urged the government to demonstrate its adherence to the Malino peace accord by punishing all those who were responsible, including those behind the attacks and those trying to create trouble.

One of the main points of the peace agreement, signed in the resort town of Malino, South Sulawesi, on Feb. 12, was a guarantee that efforts would be made to "uphold the supremacy of the law with the support of the whole community."

To this end, Syafii said, the first step was the establishment of an adequate legal framework.

"All of those involved in law enforcement, the police, judges, and prosecutors, should be reinstalled immediately ... of course this means money, but it is the only way (to end the violence)," Syafi'i said.

Despite the urgency, the government has been slow to replace the judges and prosecutors who have fled the province since the violence first erupted in early 1999.

Maluku has seven district courts and one high court, but most are half empty, according to the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights' director general for civil and state administrative courts, Soejatno.

He said the government was preparing 11 judges from various provinces to serve in Maluku. But since the tension had risen again, many appeared to be having second thoughts.

"They (judges) called me up, asking how things were doing there (in Maluku). I told them that we're watching the situation closely," he said.

He added that 11 locals from Maluku had just completed their training as judges in Jakarta, but their appointments still needed President Megawati Soekarnoputri's approval.

With few judges available, he said, the government could either provide Maluku with temporary judges to handle individual cases, or hear cases outside the province.

The number of prosecutors in Maluku has also shrunk, with 100 senior prosecutors remaining out of the normal complement of 125, official data shows.

A spokesman for the Attorney General's Office said the 25 would be replaced, but there was no telling when the replacements would arrive in Maluku.

Next to the reinstatement of the legal apparatus, Thamrin said that security enforcement should be the top priority in Maluku.

"There should be some semblance of security. People who are responsible (for inciting violence) should be accounted for ... then later indicted," he said.

Thamrin said the situation in Ambon would first have to be relatively safe and stable before any serious attempts at prosecution could be made.

"Legal proceedings could open old wounds and lead to more conflict and violence," he said. Both Thamrin and Syafi'i warned against indicting the wrong people.