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Ambon
tense as independence supporters fly separatist flags
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Agence
France-Presse
Thu
Apr 25, 2002 10:36 AM |
Hundreds of loyalist Muslims staged
a noisy protest in Indonesia's eastern city of Ambon against
independence supporters flying flags attached to air balloons to
mark the anniversary of a separatist group.
Security forces, including Maluku
military commander Brigadier General Mustopo, tried to calm about
1,000 Muslim protesters gathering in the Trikora area in downtown
Ambon, the capital of Maluku province, on Thursday.
The crowd was angered by the
authorities' failure to stop the flying of the separatist flags.
There were no reports of violence so far.
Troops blocked roads to prevent the
protesters from marching to Christian areas.
Separatists used air balloons to
fly about 10 flags of the South Maluku Republic (RMS), a
separatist movement with a predominantly Christian support base,
to mark the 52nd anniversary of the group. Security forces managed
to shoot down two of the flags.
Meanwhile a source at the Maluku
governor office said about 220 RMS flags were seized Thursday on
Haruku island off the northeastern coast of Ambon in Central
Maluku.
People loyal to Dutch colonial rule
declared the RMS in 1950 and staged a revolt against
newly-independent Indonesia, but the rebellion was quashed and the
movement has since been active mostly abroad.
RMS activities in Maluku resurfaced
after widespread sectarian unrest broke out in Ambon in January
1999.
Officials have already put in place
a series of measures to prevent the RMS from upsetting a fragile
state-brokered peace agreement reached between warring Muslim and
Christian camps in February.
Maluku governor Saleh Latuconsina,
who heads the civil emergency authority set up in Maluku in
September 2000, has extended a nightly curfew by three hours,
closed the province to foreigners and non-governmental
organizations and imposed a news blackout on RMS activities for 20
days as of April 10.
He has also banned access to the
area surrounding the home of Alex Manuputty, the RMS leader
arrested last week and set to be charged with subversion, where an
RMS flag-raising ceremony had been planned for Wednesday.
Muslims have accused the
predominantly Christian RMS of fanning sectarian violence that has
ravaged Maluku since January 1999, killing more than 5,000 people,
displacing more than 500,000 others and leaving a swathe of
destruction.
Christians say Laskar Jihad, a
Java-based militia group which has sent thousands of Muslim
fighters to the eastern islands since May 2000, has played a major
part in fanning the violence.
Police on April 17 arrested
Manuputty and said they were planning to charge him with
subversion, a charge that carries a maximum sentence of life
imprisonment.
Since his arrest, some 200
Manuputty supporters have held daily protests outside police
headquarters in Ambon to demand his release. They have also said
they plan to go ahead with the flag-raising ceremony.
More than 80 percent of Indonesia's
214 million people are Muslims but in some eastern regions,
including the Malukus, Christians make up about half the
population.
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