Police urge government to reopen Ambon airport

JAKARTA (JP): Maluku Police chief Col. Bugis Saman urged the Ministry of Communications on Saturday to reopen Pattimura Airport as paralyzed air transportation had severely affected the province.

The colonel said he guaranteed the safety of all airport employees and that he had deployed one company of Crack Riot Troops (PPRM) and special Air Force Troops to guard the airport.

Bugis told Antara that he also deplored the ministry's decision on Aug. 17 to halt commercial flights to and from Ambon for an indefinite period.

The decision followed the burning of 20 homes of employees of state-owned Angkasa Pura, which manages the country's airports, on Aug.14 and Aug.15.

He said the decision did not involve any consultation with other government agencies, the military or police.

"I can understand that the employees are still traumatized by clashes around Pattimura Airport, but the termination of commercial flights should have been coordinated with local authorities, the military and police, who actually safeguarded all the facilities," Bugis said.

One day after the violence on Aug. 13, Minister of Communications Giri Suseno Hadihardjono sent a letter to Minister of Defense and Security/Armed Forces Commander Gen. Wiranto informing him that airlines and airport employees would be in danger unless the military could ensure their safety.

PT Angkasa Pura president Wulang Kupiyotomo instructed Pattimura Airport to hand over operational command starting from Aug.17 to Pattimura Air Base Commander Lt. Col. Iskandar.

A Hercules military plane then evacuated dozens of employees to Jakarta. The staff of state-owned Merpati Nusantara Airlines and privately owned Mandala Airlines were also evacuated from the city and service was temporarily halted to Ambon. Since then only military and chartered flights have operated the route to and from Ambon.

Bugis acknowledged that despite a military and police security guarantee, the number of passengers dropped sharply because of violence-prone areas along land routes to and from the airport.

"The city's condition is still fragile and most people prefer to use sea transportation," the colonel noted.

Separately, a staff member at a humanitarian post of the Justice Party (PK) in Ambon, Suhsi Majid, said about 1,200 refugees from Laala village were stranded for nearly two weeks in the nearby village of Luhu in West Seram regency.

The Muslim refugees left their village following a clash between Muslims and Christians on Aug.17. Suhsi said his post could not do much to send food or medicine to the refugees due to poor transportation facilities.

"We can only send some medicine there," the social worker told The Jakarta Post from Ambon.

Suhsi said although Ambon was still tense on Saturday, students went to school and some shops opened. City buses, however, still operated within demarcation lines drawn to differentiate the predominant Muslim and Christian areas.

People from nearby areas like Salahutu district could not enter the city because warring parties still patrolled the streets, Suhsi said.

Rector Azyumardi Azra of the Syarif Hidayatullah State Institute of Islamic Studies told The Jakarta Post recently that calls for a jihad (holy war) would continue to become inevitable as long as a settlement to the problem was not in sight.

At least five were killed in clashes with security personnel as Muslim crowds met a call for a holy war on Thursday.

However, hopes for a settlement, Azyumardi said, could only be expected "after a new government is formed".

Beliefs raised from Christian and Muslim conspiracy theories regarding continued unrest in the province were far from the truth, Azyumardi said.

"The conflict in Ambon was initially one of space," he said, as the predominant Christian community was increasingly edged out by immigrant Muslims.

Disputes escalated to widespread warring between Christians and Muslims. Azyumardi said this was worsened by a total distrust of security personnel, who had their hands full with problems elsewhere while they faced an institutional crisis.

The result was "a public ritual of violence," he added, with an abundance of examples across the country and not only in Maluku. (prb/anr)