Peace and not violence in Ambon

Provocateurs go home! Religions want peace not violence

Jakarta (Fides)

The spirit of Assisi blows. While Pope John Paul II leads world religions in uniting efforts for building peace, in the Moluccas Indonesian Christians and Muslims "are ever more aware that they are being manipulated by provocateurs" Fides was told by a local resident who asked to remain anonymous.

"Both Catholic and Protestant Christian communities in the Moluccas want peace, not violence. We do believe that peace can only be achieved through dialogue. All forms of instigation to violence must stop," Bishop Petrus Canisius Mandagi MSC of Amboina diocese, was speaking to Fides after meeting with Indonesia’s Chief Minister for Security and Political Affairs, a retired General, Susilo Yudhoyono, in the provincial capital of Ambon over the weekend.

Last Saturday (Jan 26) Minister Susilo Yudhoyono chaired a Jakarta high-profile one-day mission to Ambon to access peace efforts in the city.

After meeting separately with both Catholic, Protestant-Christian leaders and previously with some leading Muslim figures at the governor’s residence at the capital, Minister Yudhoyono said that the two warring groups had shown the ability and desire to reconcile. "This despite some basic differences on certain points," Yudhoyono said speaking afterwards to reporters, adding that a special team consisting of ministers, security officers and local government officials has been set up to draft definitive action plans for talks between leading figures of the rival factions. "We hope that between six and nine months, the peace process will be finalized," Minister Yudhoyono added.

Meanwhile bomb blasts and gunfire rang out in the eastern part of Ambon city only hours after Jakarta’s high-profile entourage left the volatile Maluku Islands. Speaking to Fides this Monday afternoon (Jan 28), our local source said that blasts and gunshots had been heard again on Saturday night and Monday morning in several areas including Kebon Cengkeh, Mardika, Batumerah, and Karangpanjang.

Local troops later returned fire in the areas where the shooting took place, no causalities were reported. "Shootings and bomb blasts are supposed to instigate sentiments among believers who at present realize they have long been manipulated by provocateurs," a local resident spoke to Fides in terms of anonymity. The prolonged conflict between Protestants and Muslims, which broke out in January 1999, has caused the estimated slaughter of about 20,000 lives. (Fides 29/01/2002)