The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The prospect of lasting peace in Maluku has once again
shattered by Sunday morning's deadly attack in the capital of
Ambon.
The fate of the Malino II peace agreement for Maluku is again
at stake as the government considers the idea of imposing martial
law in the province.
Vice President Hamzah Haz suggested on Monday that the team
which drafted the Malino II peace accord evaluate the
post-agreement situation in Maluku.
The team's recommendations, he said, could be to elevate the
province's status from that of a civil emergency to one of martial
law.
National Police chief Da'i Bachtiar said the government might
impose martial law if the security situation in Maluku
deteriorated.
"If the situation continues to move like this, it could be
stepped up, but not at this moment," Da'i said.
He added that more troops were being readied for dispatch to
Maluku.
Despite there being no request from the province, the
government could deploy the additional troops if it deemed the
move necessary, he added.
However, imposing martial law would not solve the problem as it
has been the lack of law enforcement that has sparked all the
volatility in Maluku, observers said.
As of now, not a single person has been prosecuted for the
violence that killed some 6,000 people and displaced at least
700,000 others since 1999.
Now, once again, the central government's wishy-washy attitude
towards the legal situation in Maluku has proven to be fatal.
Some 12 people were killed and a dozen others injured on Sunday
when a gang of masked raiders stormed the village of Soya, in a
hilly region five kilometers from Maluku's capital, Ambon.
Many blame the hardline Laskar Jihad Muslim organization and
the South Maluku Republic (RMS) separatist organization for the
latest violence. Laskar Jihad has denied the accusation.
However, sociologist Thamrin Amal Tomagola suspected that
outsiders were using the RMS as a vehicle to ruin the peace
agreement, and prolong the conflict in the province.
"It's like there is a plot to magnify the RMS issue, just
like it was with GAM (the Aceh separatist movement)," Thamrin
said,
Syafii Ma'arif, chairman of the second largest Muslim group in
the country, Muhammadiyah, urged the government to demonstrate its
adherence to the Malino peace accord by punishing all those who
were responsible, including those behind the attacks and those
trying to create trouble.
One of the main points of the peace agreement, signed in the
resort town of Malino, South Sulawesi, on Feb. 12, was a guarantee
that efforts would be made to "uphold the supremacy of the
law with the support of the whole community."
To this end, Syafii said, the first step was the establishment
of an adequate legal framework.
"All of those involved in law enforcement, the police,
judges, and prosecutors, should be reinstalled immediately ... of
course this means money, but it is the only way (to end the
violence)," Syafi'i said.
Despite the urgency, the government has been slow to replace
the judges and prosecutors who have fled the province since the
violence first erupted in early 1999.
Maluku has seven district courts and one high court, but most
are half empty, according to the Ministry of Justice and Human
Rights' director general for civil and state administrative
courts, Soejatno.
He said the government was preparing 11 judges from various
provinces to serve in Maluku. But since the tension had risen
again, many appeared to be having second thoughts.
"They (judges) called me up, asking how things were doing
there (in Maluku). I told them that we're watching the situation
closely," he said.
He added that 11 locals from Maluku had just completed their
training as judges in Jakarta, but their appointments still needed
President Megawati Soekarnoputri's approval.
With few judges available, he said, the government could either
provide Maluku with temporary judges to handle individual cases,
or hear cases outside the province.
The number of prosecutors in Maluku has also shrunk, with 100
senior prosecutors remaining out of the normal complement of 125,
official data shows.
A spokesman for the Attorney General's Office said the 25 would
be replaced, but there was no telling when the replacements would
arrive in Maluku.
Next to the reinstatement of the legal apparatus, Thamrin said
that security enforcement should be the top priority in Maluku.
"There should be some semblance of security. People who
are responsible (for inciting violence) should be accounted for
... then later indicted," he said.
Thamrin said the situation in Ambon would first have to be
relatively safe and stable before any serious attempts at
prosecution could be made.
"Legal proceedings could open old wounds and lead to more
conflict and violence," he said. Both Thamrin and Syafi'i
warned against indicting the wrong people.