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Maluku
police want convicted separatists detained
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The
Jakarta Post February
03, 2003
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Maluku police want convicted
separatists detained
Aziz Tunny, The Jakarta Post,
Ambon, Maluku
Police in the war-torn province of Maluku have called for the
arrest of two separatist leaders, who remain free despite having
been sentenced to three years in jail last week, in order to
maintain peace in their homeland.
Maluku Police chief Brig. Gen. Bambang Sutrisno said he feared
that Alex Manuputty, 55, and Semmy Waeleruny, 45, leaders of the
separatist Maluku Sovereignty Front (FKM), could stir renewed
attacks here if they were not ordered to serve their jail terms
immediately.
Last Tuesday, the North Jakarta District Court sentenced the two,
both Christians, in absentia to three years in prison for plotting
a rebellion on the Maluku Islands.
They were found guilty of carrying "an act of subversion
aimed at dividing the Unitary State of the Republic of
Indonesia".
The court did not issue an arrest warrant for the defendants, who
returned home to the Maluku provincial capital of Ambon on Jan. 7,
after their detention period expired on Dec. 27 and before the
court could issue a verdict.
Two days later, a separate court in Jakarta acquitted Ja'far Umar
Thalib, leader of the self-dissolved Laskar Jihad Islamic militant
group, of all charges of provoking renewed violence in Maluku, of
spreading hatred against the government and of defaming President
Megawati Soekarnoputri.
Bambang said the police were awaiting instructions from legal
authorities to detain Alex and Semmy and send them to prison to
maintain security in Maluku, which has continued to improve since
the signing of a truce in 2001.
"We have no authority to arrest Alex Manuputty and Semmy
Waeleruny, since we have no arrest warrant from the court,"
he told journalists in Ambon on Friday.
Bambang said local security forces had been monitoring the
activities of the convicted separatist leaders in Ambon.
Separately on Friday, head of the Maluku Prosecutor's Office A.
Badrani Rasyid expressed similar disappointment over the absence
of a court order to send Alex and Semmy directly to prison.
Prosecutors, who had sought five-year sentences for the two on
trial since June for campaigning for independence in Maluku, could
not arrest them without a warrant from the court, Badrani said.
The two convicted separatists remain free as both appealed the
verdict to a higher court.
Alex and Semmy were arrested in Ambon on April 17 after
encouraging their followers in the small and poorly supported FKM
to raise separatist flags, which were banned by the central
government.
The group wants Jakarta to allow a referendum on
self-determination akin to the 1999 UN-monitored ballot held in
East Timor.
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