Military vows to cooperate with rights body in Maluku

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)