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While Elephants fight, the people of Maluku are
crushed in between
 
--------------------------------------------------------------
By George J. Aditjondro
 
IN Indonesia, we have a saying, "while the elephants fight,
the dwarf deer (pelanduk) dies in the middle," which literally
means, that while the big powers are fighting, the small
people are crushed in between. This saying applies very
appropriately to the situation in Maluku, popularly known as
the Spice Islands. Hence, I have used that old saying to title
this paper.
 
Lately, since the forced evacuation of the Indonesian Armed
Forces from Timor Loro Sa'e (East Timor), a nation they had
ravaged for nearly a quarter of a century, and after the
Indonesian Armed Forces' dual function has been successfully
dismantled, influencing the social legitimacy of the
Abdurrahman Wahid and Megawati Sukarnoputri regime, old
methods to instigate so-called "horizontal conflicts" have
been revived.
 
For more than a year now, the people of the Maluku islands
recently divided capital, and the province of North Maluku
with Ternate as its capital have been embroiled in a "civil
war" between Muslims and Christians.  Fatalities have so far
reached 2000, a high percentage of the population of 2
million.
 
News about the incidents have spread orally for a year, and
now, information that has long been disseminated through the
Internet has finally made it to the pages of the mass media:
The chain of sectarian conflict in Maluku now spreading
throughout Sulawesi, Kalimantan, West Nusa Tenggara and Java
have been triggered and fed by a number of provocators paid by
the Suharto family and several of his cronies.  That is the
result of monitoring by the Halmahera sociologist, Thamrin
Amal Tomagola, an professor at the University of Indonesia's
Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, and two human rights
organizations, KONTRAS (Commission for Missing People &
Victims of Violence Acts) and Komnas HAM (Indonesian Human
Rights Commission).  The indications became clearer after
Komnas HAM discovered fake documents in the streets of Ambon
inciting the population to religious war, following a string
of bloody events in the area (Sydney Morning Herald, 15
January 2000).
 
Four provocators whose names have come up are Butje Sarpara,
Dicky Wattimena, Yorris Raweyai, and Brigadier General Kivlan
Zein.  Sarpara is a former teacher from North Maluku, who has
also been head of the Agricultural Office in Jayapura (now
Port Numbay) in West Papua.  Colonel Wattimena is a former
member of the Presidential Security Corps (PASWALPRES) and
former Mayor of Ambon.  Yorris Raweyai is the deputy chair of
the Pancasila Youth, close to Bambang Trihatmodjo, the second
son of former President Suharto. While Brigadier General
Kivlan Zein, whose initial had already been mentioned by
Abdurrahman Wahid, early last year, is allegedly involved in
recruiting drop-outs from the Indonesian Military Academy near
Mount Tidar in Central Java. Hence, these failed army
officers, who do master enough martial skills, are called the
"Eks-Tidar Group" (Xpos, 4-10 March 1999; Detikcom, 3 March
1999; Jakarta Post, 18 January 2000; Waspada, 18 January 2000;
Sydney Morning Herald, 19 January 2000).
 
These provocators do not work alone.  In particular, Yorris
Raweyai, whose formal residence is in Jakarta but, in
collaboration with Yapto Suryosumarno, chair of the Pancasila
Youth, is reported to be involved in provocationary activities
to incite ethnic conflict in other provinces, for example West
Kalimantan, where the Malay and Dayak ethnic groups who, last
year were comrades in arms against Madurese migrants are
beginning to wage a bloody conflict against each other (SiaR,
16 April l999).
 
In Ambon itself, the provocators need only to incite Christian
and Muslim gangs of young delinquents to spark conflict.
These gangs in turn have their respective "bosses" in Jakarta,
who are attempting to gain the support of Suharto's children.
 
The gang of Christian delinquents is named Cowok Keristen
(Christian Boys), shortened to Coker, and uses the Maranatha
Protestant church as headquarters. In Jakarta, they are
connected to two Moluccan Christian youths, Milton Matuanakota
and Ongky Pieters.  This gang of Moluccan Christian youths
dominate the shopping centre, parking area and gambling dens
in West Jakarta. After the Ketapang incidents in Jakarta,
November 1998, where four of Ongen's boys died, hundreds of
Milton and Ongky's followers moved to Ambon.
 
In Jakarta, antagonists of the Milton and Ongky group are
represented by Ongen Sangaji, a Pancasila Youth activist and
coordinator of a Moluccan Muslim university student
organization.  Many members of this group were recruited into
the PAM Swakarsa (civilian security troops) used by then Chief
of Armed Forces, General Wiranto, and Acting President Habibie
to cordon off the Senayan parliament building from university
students protesting the Extraordinary Session of the MPR in
November l998.
 
Meanwhile, Ongen is reported to have close ties to Bambang
Trihatmodjo, while Milton is said to be closer to Siti
Hardiyanti Rukmana, aka Tutut. Other reports state that Ongen,
whose task was to recruit North Moluccan delinquents into the
PAM Swakarsa during the MPR extra-ordinary session, received
funds from Tutut and a retired army general close to the
Suharto family, Abdul Gafur, who also hails from North Maluku.
Tutut and Gafur are both involved in setting up a foundation,
Yayasan Kesejahteraan Masyarakat Indonesia (YAKMI), which
mobilized about 10,000 PAM Swakarsa troops armed with sharp
bamboo spears to fight against the unarmed students near the
Semanggi bridge near Senayan (van Klinken, n.d.; HRW l999:8;
SiaR, 24 November 1998, 26 & 29 January 1999; Xpos, 28 January
- 3 February 1999).
 
The bloody conflict in Maluku does not involve only those
civilians, retired army officers and allegedly one active
general. Active military and police are also suspected by
Tamagola to be involved in practices to incite conflict.  He
is of the opinion that the network of provocators can be
traced back to connections with former Minister of Defense and
Security, Armed Forces Commander General Wiranto (Sydney
Morning Herald, 19 January 2000).
 
(Indonesia version)

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