Footage turns up heat on military
South China Morning Post
TuesdayJuly 182000
INDONESIA Photo: Damning film: soldiersshown in a street clash with
Christians in Ambonhave been filmed helping Muslim attackers.
Reuters photo VAUDINE ENGLAND in Jakarta Men in Indonesian military uniform have been filmed providing
covering fire for Muslim fighters as they attacked a Christian
neighbourhood in the violence-wracked Maluku Islands. The footage has highlighted Christian calls for foreign troops to
intervenebut such a move would be politically dangerous for
President Abdurrahman Wahid. Yesterday he suggested Jakarta could
seek outside help if the fighting worsenedand Foreign Minister
Alwi Shihab said such a deterioration could lead to the deployment
of foreign troops - though he called such an outcome hypothetical. The Muslim militants shown on the film with homemade weapons and
army-issue Garand M1 carbines and Colt M-16 rifles. They also
carried the SS-1an Indonesian version of the Belgian-made FN
5.56mm automatic riflewhich is only available to army troops in
Indonesia. Another shot shows a Muslim fighter dressed in white
with an orange headbandshooting an M16 through a bunker. M16s
are also only legally available through the armed forces. The footage appears to provide the first firm evidence of the
participation of Indonesian soldiers in a communal conflict that
in 18 months has claimed about 4000 Christian and Muslim lives.
The men in military uniformfilmed from the Muslim side of a
street battle in Amboncould be heard speaking Javanese. The Muslim fighters wore either white head gear or green head
bands. They are thought to be members of the Laskar Jihada
militant Muslim group that has sent at least 3000 fighters to the
Malukus. Muslim mobsaided by army soldiersyesterday resumed attacks on
Christian homesa witness in Ambon saidadding that soldiers and
"jihad forces" also had attacked two Christian areas on Sunday.
Sammy Weileruniof the Christian co-ordination post at the
Maranatha church in Ambonsaid witnesses had seen the soldiers
briefing the attackers before Sunday's assaults. Fighting has increased in Ambon and further north on the island of
Halmaherawhich Christian groups blame on the arrival of Laskar
Jihad. They are calling for foreign troops to separate the warring
sides given the inability of Indonesian troops to restore peace
even under a recently declared state of civil emergency. Mr Wahid said yesterday that "if the outcome is still not
satisfactory after we have done our bestwe may ask for
international help in the form of equipment and logistics". Mr Shihab said: "If the Government and the TNI [Indonesian armed
forces] cannot stop the bloodshed in the Malukus or at least get
it under control then we will consider sending foreign
peacekeepers - but such a situation now is merely hypothetical. We
are doing our best to stop it." US Defence Secretary William Cohen spoke about the Malukus while
on a visit to Australia. "We would co-ordinate very carefully in
terms of what responses would be appropriatebut that is
something I think Australia must look at very carefully" Mr Cohen
said. Any armed interventionand especially any led by Australian
troopswould call to the Indonesian mind the events in East Timor
last year when a foreign force stopped Indonesian-backed militia
rampages. That affront to Indonesian pride was so greatand
belief in a Western conspiracy to divide and rule Indonesia so
widespreadthat foreign intervention in the Malukus would be a
threat to Mr Wahid's tenure in office. Observers from both Muslim and Christian sides say the conflict in
the Malukus is impossible to stop when the soldiers sent there to
enforce peace are themselves participants on both sides of the
religious divide. Defence Minister Juwono Sudarsonoin his most outspoken criticism
yet of his own troopssaid in a weekend newspaper interview that
rogue officers were an "uncontrollable factor" in the bloodshed
and urged their sacking. Howeverhe said he was powerless to
force the army to sack them.
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