TNI sends more troops to Maluku

TNI sends more troops to Maluku

JAKARTA (JP): Over 400 reinforcements arrived in riot-torn
Maluku on Monday, with a pledge to maintain neutrality in their
efforts to quell the communal clashes that have rocked the
islands for the past year.

Lt. Col. Sukoso Maksum, who heads the 401 Infantry Battalion
from the Central Java-based Diponegoro Military Command, said
upon arrival at Sultan Baabulah airport in North Maluku's main
city of Ternate that his personnel would take a mediatory role,
without ignoring their main duty to restore order.

"Everybody is expected to act stiffly and maintain
impartiality when dealing with the warring parties," Sukoso said
as quoted by Antara.

Alleged discriminative treatment by security personnel has
been blamed for the unabated sectarian conflict across the
archipelagic province. A member of a reconcilatory team sent to
Maluku, Thamrin Amal Tomagola, said last week security troops had
failed to uphold neutrality in their handling of the cycle of
violence in Maluku.

The arrival of reinforcements, popularly called Bull Raiders,
will join an Army battalion sent from East Java to North Maluku's
riot-hit areas of Galela, Tobelo, Kao and Jailolo.

Some 8,000 troops have been dispatched to Maluku since the
first outbreak of violence took place in mid-January last year.

Fresh waves of clashes have erupted in North and Central
Maluku over the past week. The Indonesian Military (TNI)
estimated the death toll during the week of violence at 448, with
270 others severely injured.

In a statement released on Monday, the TNI said Galela,
Tobelo, Jailolo and Ibo districts remained prone to clashes.

There has been controversy on the number of fatalities. Antara
quoted refugees and North Maluku Police chief Lt. Col. Didik
Prijandono as saying that between 400 and 500 people had been
killed over the past week. A group of South Sulawesi natives
living in North Maluku reported that figure was too high.

Hours before the arrival of new troops, at least six people
were killed in two separate incidents in North Maluku. Meanwhile,
thousands others fled their homes to seek safety.

Three people were mobbed to death for alleged infiltration
shortly after their arrival at Ahmad Yani seaport in Ternate.
They were among refugees from Tobelo and Galela.

No details were available about the incident, which took place
early on Monday. Later in the day, three people died in a clash
in the Bahtera neighborhood area of Ternate.

Sawid Silawane from the local Indonesian Ulemas Council (MUI)
confirmed the incident in Bahtera and identified the three
victims as Muslim residents from Nusa Pelau in Haruku island and
Kairatu.

"They died of fatal gunshot wounds and all were buried
immediately after the incident. Security forces shot them in
their attempt to disperse the crowd," he told The Jakarta Post.

Sawid said he had no idea what might have fueled the incident,
but he insisted that Muslim residents would take revenge for the
previous day's burning of a privately run Islamic hospital.

A resident of Bahtera, Edong alias Harti, said the
neighborhood was calm on Monday evening.

"People only stopped the throwing homemade bombs after police
arrived at around 12 a.m.," she said.

Earlier on Saturday communal clashes also erupted in Masohi,
around one kilometer from Bahtera.

Edong said in Masohi and its vicinity residents were living
without electricity supplies and public transport.

In Makassar, at least 100 people belonging to the South
Sulawesi Muslims Front (FMSS) staged a protest at the City Hall
on Monday, demanding the evacuation of Muslims from riot-torn
North Maluku.

The demonstrators, consisting of North Maluku people living in
Makassar and local Muslim youths, urged the government of
Indonesia and the South Sulawesi administration to provide
Muslims in North Maluku with transportation.

"We want the South Sulawesi administration to give serious
attention to North Maluku Muslims, who mostly hail from South
Sulawesi, or there will be more killings," Bachtiar Andi Lewa,
coordinator of the organization said.

Demonstrations were also staged in Yogyakarta, where some
2,000 people who claimed to represent the Muslim Brotherhood
Forum (FUI) marched to the local legislative body to demand that
the Maluku 'genocide' be promptly settled.

Some of the demonstrators made speeches, while others waved
banners reading, among other things, "Ambon is not a second
Bosnia."

Meanwhile, House of Representatives Speaker Akbar Tandjung
suggested on Monday that the central government set up a crisis
center to take over all problems occurred in Maluku since the
local administration was no longer functioning.

"The center could handle and control all the administrative
functions until the situation is declared safe," Akbar said.

He said the center is needed since the current clashes were
believed to involve local public figures and officials.
(27/emf/jun/swa/sur)