JAKARTA (JP): A separatist leader in strife-torn Maluku
province who has been detained for a month will be transferred to
Jakarta later Thursday for further questioning, National Police
chief Gen. Da'i Bachtiar said as quoted by AFP.
Alex Manuputty, chairman of the pro-independence Maluku
Sovereignty Front (FKM), was arrested at his home in the city of
Ambon on April 18 over his plan to raise a separatist flag on
April 25 to mark a secessionist group's anniversary.
"Starting today, Alex Manuputty will be questioned in
Jakarta," Da'i told reporters as quoted by the news agency
after a cabinet meeting led by President Megawati Soekarnoputri.
"(The transfer) is to prevent possible disruptions such as
intimidation against investigators," he said, adding that it
had yet to be decided whether Manuputty would be tried in Jakarta
or in Ambon, the capital of Maluku province.
It was reported that Manuputty had arrived in Jakarta at dusk
Thursday along with another detained separatist leader, Sammy
Weileruni.
National Police deputy spokesman Brig. Gen. Edward Aritonang
said both men would be detained for questioning at the national
police headquarters here.
The FKM is affiliated to the now-defunct Christian-basedseparatist
movement South Maluku Republic (RMS), which was declared in 1950
by people loyal to Dutch colonial rule. Then RMS staged a failed
revolt against newly independent Indonesia.
RMS activists, most of them now living in the Netherlands, have
continued their campaign for international recognition.
RMS anniversary celebrations on April 25 in Ambon were marked
with explosions and angry protests by Muslim loyalists.
Muslims and Christians in the Maluku islands have fought a
bitter war since January 1999, leaving more than 6,000 dead, some
half a million homeless and a trail of destruction.
Police have also arrested Jafar Umar Thalib, the commander of
the Muslim paramilitary group Laskar Jihad. It has been accused of
fueling sectarian violence since it arrived in the Malukus inMay
2000 vowing to wage "holy war".
Thalib is charged with inciting a massacre of 13 Christian
villagers on April 28, three days after the RMS anniversary.
A state-brokered peace pact in February this year brought a
brief calm but has been undermined by a series of violent
incidents since early April -- notably the April 28 massacre.
Coordinating Minister for Political and Security Affairs Susilo
Bambang Yudhoyono last week ordered the disbanding of the FKM and
the expulsion from the Malukus of the Java-based LaskarJihad. No
timetable has been set.
