Military vows to cooperate with rights body in Maluku
AMBON, Maluku (JP): Maluku military authorities pledged on Wednesday full support for the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas Ham) team to investigate atrocities in Maluku and North Maluku.
The chief of Pattimura Military Command overseeing Maluku, Brig. Gen. Max Tamaela, said he would provide all necessary data or anything that would make the inquiry a success.
The team, led by Bambang W. Soeharto, is scheduled to arrive on Thursday.
"We warmly welcome the investigation team. They can check the data and we will back them up. We just don't want any misinformation or misunderstandings to occur," he said.
"I don't want any questioning of military top brass over the year-long violence here," Tamaela said, referring to the East Timor mayhem which some generals are being questioned over for alleged rights violations.
The commission's new chairman, Joko Sugianto, earlier said the commission had found indications that clashes in the two neighboring provinces had spread to other regions.
Meanwhile, the situation in Ambon is generally under control, contrary to rumors that there would be violence to "commemorate" the first year of the sectarian clashes in Ambon on Wednesday.
However, bomb blasts were heard in two separate places, between Mardika and Batu Merah and between Suabali and Pohon Pule. The four residential areas were badly damaged during clashes between the two religious groups.
Tamaela said the bomb blasts were meant to provoke people to fight with each other.
"Four people were arrested with homemade bombs in their hands. They infiltrated the area between Suabali and Pohon Pule," Tamaela said, refusing to identify the men, who are being detained at the police precinct.
The explosions prompted the military to block the street linking Batu Gantung and the Trikora Monument area. "The blasts hurt no one and destroyed no buildings because the bombs exploded in the debris of buildings damaged by earlier riots," a resident said.
Many assume the unceasing clashes, which started on Jan. 18 last year, have claimed almost 2,000 lives.
Vice President Megawati Soekarnoputri is slated to visit Maluku on Monday.
The information office of the Maluku provincial administration said nine ministers, including Home Affairs Minister Surjadi Soedirdja and Coordinating Minister for Political Affairs and Security Gen. Wiranto, would accompany Megawati.
The government estimates some Rp 30 million (US$4,285) per family is needed to resettle the refugees and will propose the estimation to the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) as the coordinator of the international consortium for the refugees.
Meanwhile, reports from Surabaya, East Java, said on Wednesday that leaflets had been dispersed, forcefully requesting Christians leave the island of Madura soon.
The leaflets, bearing the stamp of an organization called BASSRA (Association of All Ulemas in Madura) also called for retaliation.
However, BASSRA chairman Nuruddin A. Rahman told The Jakarta Post in Bangkalan, Madura, that the leaflets must have been circulated by irresponsible groups to provoke chaos in East Java.
Brawijaya Military Command chief May. Gen. Sudi Silalahi said that the production and circulation of the leaflets was well organized as to evoke the anger of Muslims in East Java.
Also in Surabaya, students from the Indonesian Muslim Students Action Front (KAMMI) held a solidarity drive to help the victims of the Ambon conflict and staged a demonstration at the provincial legislative council. (49/nur/sur/04)