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Inaction on Maluku violence 'reigniting
separatist cause'
Independence
movements are emerging as Jakarta fails to crack down on religious
militants
By Marianne
Kearney
STRAITS TIMES INDONESIA BUREAU
JAKARTA - Unlike its aggressive
attempts to crush separatist rebels in Aceh, the Indonesian
government has been half-hearted in ending the equally alarming
sectarian conflict in Maluku.
Ironically, inaction in the
province - which has witnessed bloody clashes between Muslim and
Christian extremists despite a peace accord in February - had
reignited the separatist movement there, said analysts.
'Aceh is taken seriously by the
government but the Malukus are not,' a Western diplomat said.
The government's differing stance
is explained by the fact that Aceh militants demanding
independence are perceived as far more threatening than the
religious militants who merely threaten civilian lives, according
to the observers.
Police in the Malukus have been
reluctant to heed calls from both the central government and the
Malukus' governor to arrest the leaders of militant groups, such
as the Laskar Jihad, which have been active there.
But in Aceh, the military and
mobile police have been aggressively launching operations against
the armed separatists since President Megawati Sukarnoputri
authorised a new military operation last year.
Jakarta was ignoring the Malukus at
its own peril, said the Western diplomat.
'The joke is that now the
government's lack of action over the violence in Maluku has
re-created the separatist movement. RMS was refounded in November
2000 after the arrival of Laskar Jihad,' he said, referring to the
Republic of South Maluku Movement (RMS).
RMS was an independence movement
formed in the 1950s, but most of its members fled to the
Netherlands when it failed. It had not been heard from again until
2000.
Another independence movement, the
Maluku Sovereignty Front (FKM), has also sprung up.
The military had shown little
urgency in solving the conflict because it was not their
responsibility, said Moluccan sociologist Tamrin Tomagola.
The military had appeared more
committed to ending the conflict, said observers, after a revamp
placed a military commander - rather than police - at the helm of
the security operations.
Curiously, the presence of the
Laskar Jihad is now an impetus for a crackdown on the RMS after
Vice-President Hamzah Haz suggested that the religious
fundamentalists could not be expelled from the province until the
separatists had been thrown out as well.
'The separatist element has given
the security forces a good excuse to crack down on Laskar Jihad,'
said the diplomat. Also, RMS has minimal local support, which
makes it an easier target.
Other observers noted that top
Security Minister Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono had begun to take
action to end the three-year-old conflict in the Malukus.
Along with Welfare Minister Yusuf
Kalla, he promised that the February peace accord would bring
peace.
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