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Muslims
plan to thwart rebel groups's celebration
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The
Jakarta Post
April
14, 2003
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Muslims plan to thwart rebel
groups's celebration
National News - April 14, 2003
Aziz Tunny, The Jakarta
Post, Ambon, Maluku
The Muslim community in the Maluku
capital of Ambon have vowed to foil the planned anniversary
celebration of the South Maluku Republic (RMS) next week.
The Islam Defenders Front of Maluku
(FPIM) has began pasting green leaflets on buildings in a
predominantly-Muslim housing complex in Ambon, warning the Muslim
community of the separatist movement.
The leaflets, signed by FPIM
chairman and secretary Husni Putuhena and Ma'mun Pelu
respectively, also call for jihad against any secessionist group
and appeal to the Maluku people to help the Indonesian Military
and the National Police maintain national integrity.
FPIM was responding to a plan by
the Maluku Sovereignty Front (FKM) to celebrate the 54th
anniversary of its affiliated group RMS on April 25,
FKM secretary-general Moses
Tuanakota has said some 2,500 supporters of the organization would
observe the anniversary by hoisting the RMS flag. Moses also
called on the people to ignore the government ban on the
anniversary celebration, saying the South Maluku Republic was
legitimate as it had been registered with the United Nations.
RMS initiated an armed rebellion
over disappointment with Jakarta in the 1950s, but was crushed by
government troops.
The government and military have
warned FKM supporters against celebrating the RMS anniversary.
FKM chairman Alex Manuputty was
sentenced to three years in prison in January for plotting a
rebellion in the Maluku Islands by inciting his supporters to
raise RMS flags. He has been detained at the National Police since
March 17 pending his appeal.
Separately, some 350 junior and
senior high school students rallied on Saturday against the
separatist movement in the province.
Students from 10 schools and
activists of several Muslim organizations joined the peaceful
demonstration. The participants claimed their move was supported
by the Maluku chapter of the Indonesian Ulemas Council (MUI).
Ahmad Ilham Sipahutar, who
coordinated the rally, told The Jakarta Post that the
demonstrators asked the acting governor of Maluku, who is
concurrently the civil emergency administrator, Sinyo Harri
Sarundayang, Pattimura military commander Maj. Gen. Agustadi and
Maluku Police chief Brig. Gen. Bambang Sutrisno to take tough
actions against RMS activists.
The separatist issue has resurfaced
since the government brokered peace talks in February last year
between Muslims and Christians to end three years of sectarian
conflict in the islands. The bloodshed left some 6,000 people
killed and hundreds of thousands of others displaced.
Masterminds of the sectarian riots
remain at large and the government has not lifted the
three-year-old civil emergency status in Maluku.
Meanwhile, Sarundayang said on
Saturday the Maluku administration had called on the central
government to pay special attention to the province's efforts to
recover after a peace deal was signed to end communal clashes last
year.
Sarundayang said that the
government had responded to the request positively, considering
the damage in economic and sociocultural fields inflicted by the
conflict.
"The government is likely to
issue a presidential decree on Maluku in the near future that will
enable the province to develop both infrastructure and
peace," he said.
He said Maluku deserved special
treatment as it had experienced serious conflicts like Aceh and
Papua.
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