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Sudden violence shatters
18-month calm in N. Maluku
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THE
STRAITS TIMES
September 20, 2002
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Sudden violence shatters
18-month calm in N. Maluku
The security situation has
returned to normal but Indonesian security forces cannot say who
was behind the attacks
By Marianne
Kearney
STRAITS TIMES INDONESIA BUREAU
JAKARTA - At least two people died
and more than 200 houses were torched in a sudden flash of
violence in the North Maluku islands, shattering an 18-month
period of calm in the province described as a success story in
resolving sectarian conflict.
While violence continues on
southern Maluku islands such as Ambon, sectarian fighting has not
racked the northern province since June 2000.
Indeed, the southern island of
Haruku witnessed a clash on Wednesday when youths from two
neighbouring villages attacked each other, two people were killed
and another two wounded, said the state Antara news agency.
News of the fight - apparently over
a trivial dispute - sparked clashes in Ambon where another youth
was killed, said Antara.
But it was the violent attack in
the northern part of Morotai, an island off the north-western tip
of Halmahera island in North Maluku, which took local journalists
and other observers by surprise.
Armed men attacked three villages
and killed two people last Sunday, according to a journalist from
Radio Hikmah in Ternate, the capital of North Maluku.
The villages of Pangeo, Kusobo and
Soara were torched, gutting 210 houses, one mosque, three churches
and a school.
Police say the security situation
has since returned to normal but neither they nor the security
forces have said who was behind the attacks.
'These three villages were never
part of the conflict before and all were places where Christians
and Muslims all lived together well,' said Noval, a journalist
from Radio Hikmah.
Christian and Muslim leaders
interviewed by the local media have said they did not believe the
attacks were religiously motivated, as both sides suffered.
Aid organisations said they were
taken aback because North Maluku has had the most successful
reconciliation between Muslim and Christian residents.
'We are all really confused as to
what went on and trying to understand why it happened,' said one
aid worker.
Unlike in Ambon, where hardline
Muslim and Christian groups have been blamed for provoking
violence, there are no longer any militant groups in North Maluku
who could have sparked the conflict.
Communal violence between Muslims
and Christians first erupted in Ambon in January 1999 and quickly
spread to the other islands. Since then, it is estimated to have
led to more than 5,000 deaths and created more than 500,000
refugees.
Although violence erupted in North
Maluku in late 1999 and it witnessed several big massacres in June
2000, the conflict has subsided. Several hundred people were
killed in that period, and thousands of refugees fled to Sulawesi.
Peace was restored after militant
groups were expelled in 2000 and the regional government moved
quickly to establish control over conflict-torn districts.
Last year, many of the refugees
began returning to Ternate and Halmahera.
'The two communities have been
reconciled, people are returning to their homes and rebuilding
their lives,' said one Western observer.
The Maluku islands, which used to
be a single province, were split into two in Jan 2000.
Both provinces have been under a
civilian state of emergency since last year.
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