National rights body team visits devastated Maluku
National rights body team visits devastated Maluku
AMBON, Maluku (JP): A team from the National Commission on
Human Rights (Komnas HAM) began a visit to Ambon on Thursday to
evaluate the success of the one-month long civil emergency status
in the strife-torn provinces.
Bambang W. Soeharto, BN Marbun and Maj. Gen. (ret) Sjamsoedin
from Komnas HAM's team of reconciliation and mediation for the
Malukus met with Governor Saleh Latuconsina at his office on
Thursday.
"The team is here to gather data for an evaluation of the
imposition of the civil emergency status that started on June
27," Bambang told the media after the meeting.
"We are very concerned that violence has intensified here
during the civil emergency, whereas in April the situation was
actually already very conducive for peace and reconciliation.
"We believe that the arrival of unwanted outsiders has
disrupted the rehabilitation and reconciliation efforts," Bambang
said, without mentioning who he was referring to.
Reports have said that the arrival of Laksar Jihad fighters in
early May worsened the situation in the two provinces.
"We ask for the political elite to support the ongoing civil
emergency in a bid to speed up the resolution of the Maluku
conflict," Bambang said.
The team will reportedly visit North Maluku on a similar
mission.
Separately, the Navy's Eastern Fleet security commander,
Commodore Djoko Sumarsono, said on Thursday that Navy officers
had recently seized 200 grenades and grenade launchers and around
7,000 rounds of ammunition from onboard the KM Dobonsolo.
The liner sails from Surabaya to Ambon via Bali and Kupang.
He also said that Navy officers had seized three vessels
loaded with weaponry on their way from southern Philippine waters
to Halmahera and Ternate in North Maluku.
"We also detected the movement of armed rioters entering
Maluku from Gorontalo, North Sulawesi," the commodore said.
The officer also alleged that in southern Philippines weapons
were being traded freely.
"Anybody with a certain amount of money can purchase guns
there," he said.
In Sorong, Irian Jaya, the KM Dobonsolo, with around 3,000
refugees from Maluku onboard, was denied entry to the town's port
to unload its passengers as residents feared they would trigger
unrest.
Hundreds of Irianese crowded the port on Thursday to drive the
ship back to sea, a witness named Bondan, a worker at Sorong
Parish Cathedral, told The Jakarta Post by phone. He added that
the vessel finally disembarked its passengers on the nearby
island of Buaya, before continuing to the other Irian Jaya towns
of Manokwari, Biak and Jayapura, were the refugees were told to
remain onboard. (49/eba/edt)