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THE CAUSES OF AMBON TRAGEDY
http://www.al-madeena.com/indo.html
 
1.Problem Background
 
Maluku is an archipelago rich with spices (nutmegs and
cloves). The area is populated with heterogenous community
from various ethnic groups, religions and races. Religious
tolerance is good enough, even though intimidation and
discrimination by a group of people to another group of people
is fairly common. The Muslim people are free to do their
religious duties, such as shalat, shaum (fasting) and others.
However, on the other hand, the Muslims did not perform their
duties completely. Such is shown by the fact that they
attended the Christmas celebration, as well as dancing and
drinking parties.
 
On the other side, the economic and social life of the Muslims
shown some progress in trading performance. Whereas the native
Ambonese always thought that the economic life would only
improve if they worked in an office. This was when the Muslims
started to dominate trading in Ambon, along with the Chinese.
This has caused a social gap.
 
At the same time, political life in this country was very
complex, because everyone tried to hold certain positions.
This was how the provocators used the issue of social gap to
destroy the immigrant Muslims in this area.
 
2. The Cause of the First Ambon Tragedy
 
The riots were started from an illegal ticket sale by a
BatuMerah youth (named Usman) to a public transport driver
(named Yopi) which turned to be a fight. The systematically
planned scenario became a reality. The attacks from the
Christians to several Muslims area in Ambon have destroyed the
Muslims residential area. The tragedy, known as the Bloody
‘Ied Tragedy and which has taken many victims, happened
on the 19 January 1999.
 
The first tragedy was settled down by involving several
approaches from social leaders, religious scholars, government
and militaire. Religious scholars, community leaders,
government and militaire were gathered to form an agreement by
signing a peace agreement. Several (up to 4) peace agreements
were resulted and reached its climax when the Minister of
Defence and Security and the Team 19 which consisted of the
native Malukunese were present.
 
The security stability did not happen for long. Since the Team
19 and the Marine Troop were withdrawn from Ambon, the Ambon
community began their activity with suspiciousness. A little
spark of fight would turn to a battle.
 
3. The Cause of The Second Ambon Tragedy
 
The second battle started from the torture of the Muslim
students in Poka. The problem was not solved because the
victims did not dare to report the incident. Riots started on
the 24 July 1999, when at dawn stoning to Muslim houses in
Block I to V Perumnas Poka started. The Muslim youths reacted
and stoning between houses started.
 
The second riots began in Perumnas Poka when the Christians
attacked and burnt the lecturer houses around the Pattimura
University. It took a lot more victims than the first riot,
both material and immaterial ones.
 
 
The raped cases  in Wailiha village When this village was
being attacked by the christ people, they divided the young
and beatiful muslimas to be a special group. They  raped the
yound and beautiful muslilmas before  killed them.After they
(the christ ppl) forced the muslima to be uncloth, then they
raped them, after that they cut the muslimas breast or their
head or to hurt the muslimas vaginas with a hard  thing and
killed them very cruelly.A mother of three children was raped
by 20 christ together.  The men were cut and cut untill died,
even some children were cut too. This case  was never exposed
by pers medias here.
 
 
Muslim Women were raped in Ambon
 
The Jakarta Post, 05 August 1999
 
JAKARTA (JP): The government says an estimated 470,000
refugees are nowsheltering in the South Sulawesi capital of
Ujungpandang after fleeing unrest in the troubled provinces of
Maluku, East Timor, Aceh and Irian Jaya.The secretary-general
of the Ministry of Social Services, Moerwanto, was quoted by
Antara as saying in Ujungpandang that the government has
distributed 400 grams of rice and side dishes, worth Rp 1,500
(21 US cents) each, for every refugee daily for 70 days. The
relief is given "in the hope it would lessen their burden,
though of course it's far from enough", he said after
delivering the aid in a ceremony on Wednesday.The government
estimate is the highest so far.
 
In May, the number of people fleeing sectarian clashes in
Maluku and seeking shelter in South Sulawesi and Southeast
Sulawesi cities, as well as in Southeast Maluku regency, was
put at 100,000. An estimated 100,000 Acehnese are now seeking
shelter in various towns after fleeing armed conflicts between
the military and separatist guerrillas. From East Timor,
thousands have also left their villages as tensions rose in
the run-up to the self-determination ballot planned for Aug.
30.
 
Meanwhile, AFP reported that Ambon was calm on Wednesday after
a renewed bout of Muslim-Christian violence that forced many
Chinese Indonesians to flee.In the latest outbreak of
violence, a man was stabbed to death on Tuesday at the Mardika
market in downtown Ambon, sparking an angry reaction in the
predominantly Muslim neighborhood of Galunggung. Security
forces moved in and fired warning shots to prevent a fresh
riot."The situation is almost normal but still vulnerable,"
Maluku Military Command spokesman Lt. Col. Iwa Budiman said.He
said police and soldiers remained on alert and were still
deployed in places "susceptible" to violence."Large groups of
people are only centered at Al Fatah and Maranatha," he said
referring to a mosque and church where Muslims and Christians
have sought refuge from violence. He said "a number" of ethnic
Chinese were fleeing the city on ships andairplanes.
 
The Media Indonesia daily on Wednesday said at least 1,500
ethnic Chinese were fleeing the unrest. But, reacting to the
media report, Budiman said: "It's not that many and they did
not leave in one go." The ethnic hinese community in Ambon,
which had escaped involvement in the Muslim-Christian violence
that has simmered since January, were targeted for the first
time when fresh violence flared last week. Many of their shops
in the predominantly Christian shopping area in the A.Y. Pati
neighborhood in downtown Ambon were burned during the
violence. Meanwhile, a report by the investigation team set up
by the Maluku provincial chapter of the Justice Party
described an attack on July 25 on te hamlets of Kisar, Kampung
Pisang and Wailiha in the Batu Gong village,north
 
Of Ambon, by residents of neighboring Hutumuri village.
 
The report alleged that the attackers used firearms, machetes,
spears and homemade bombs. They also burned houses and two
mosques, and forced the Muslim residents to flee, the report
said. The report said four people were killed in the attack,
14 were severely injured, three others went missing, and three
women were sexually harassed.The report also said one woman
who was trying to seek refuge in a factory building was
gang-raped and wounded severely. She is reportedly now being
treated at the Navy hospital of Halong."The report was
compiled from testimonies of the victims and witnesses to the
investigation team of the Justice Party," said Suhfi of the
provincial chapter of the party, which also set up a
humanitarian team to help victims of the violence, which first
erupted on Jan. 19. (swe)
 
THE MARDIKA INCIDENT
 
The fight in Mardika between the Jihad Troop Hatuhaha and the
White Group Mass and the Red Group Mass in Mardika took place
on Saturday (date??) at 17.00 East Indonesian Time.
 
When the two groups met, bomb explosions were heard 4 times.
The first explosion was heard at around 17.30 East Indonesian
Time. Then the two groups started to attack. The security
force around the area did not stay quiet. They fired warning
shots. However, the two groups were not scared off. The attack
burnt 7 shops belong to the Chinese in Mardika. The shops were
burnt by the Hatuhaha Troop.
 
The dead victims in the incident were Muhamad Marasabessy (42
yrs), L. Bili (20 yrs) who that afternoon still smiled at me,
held up his fist and whispered the takbir (Allahuakbar) and La
Amu (39 yrs). The victims were dead from the shots by the
security force.
 
Based on the story of Hawa, who witnessed the death of the
three Muslims, the victims were shot by the security personnel
from Yonif 733 named Serda Barito. Hawa pointed out that she
knew the security personnel well.
 
The fight atmosphere made the situation very bad.

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