2009-03-26
Indonesia: Release peaceful protesters jailed for raising a flag
Indonesia has arrested at least 152 people for waving the flags of regional independence movements, Amnesty International says.....
AI 2008-12-17
CRACKDOWN ON FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION IN MALUKU Continue.
MICHR WELCOMES YOU
THESE ARE THE MOLUCCAN ISLANDS
Historically, Maluku (also known as the Moluccas or the Spice Islands) is perhaps, to the outside world, the best-known part of the Indonesian archipelago. Rich harvest of nutmeg and cloves, worth more than gold, lured the Dutch colonialist into the European wars between the Portuguese, the Dutch and the English in the 16th and 17th centuries, and ruled the islands as part of the Dutch East Indies for 350 years (1559 to 1950).
Indonesian neo-colonialism has now replaced Dutch colonialism but the Moluccan people still remain under foreign occupation.
The Moluccas are located in the southeastern part of the Indonesian archipelago, near the equator, north of Australia and west of West Papua. The city of Ambon, located on the island of Ambon, is the provincial
More than two million people live on these islands; in addition nearly
The total land area is roughly one-and-a half times the size of the Netherlands or Switzerland, or three times the size of El Salvador or Israel.
Vegetation and wildlife resemble the ecology of Melanesia, New Guinea and northern Australia, differing significantly from the ecology of Java and Sumatra - the main entities of the nation of Indonesia.
Although
By race, culture, custom and manner, the Moluccans differ from the dominant Indonesians who are descendants of the Mogoloid-Malayan race. The Moluccans are Melanesians, a tall, dark-skinned people with wide eyes and curly hair. Like other Melanesians (and indigenous peoples throughout the world), they are in a constant struggle to preserve their village and tribal culture.
Through some 2300 years of domination by Arab, Portugese, Dutch and now Indonesian colonialism, the Moluccan people have not forgotten the ancient laws and traditions of their nationhood. One ancient practice is rooted in mutual assistance: members of one village traditionally lend plant seedings or help build a storehouse in a neighboring village.
A PEOPLE IN PERIL
The Moluccan people are victimized. Fifty-eight years of Javanese-dominant occupation of Indonesia has taken its toll. The national identity of the Moluccan people is disappearing fast. An overall Javanese identity is taking its place, which is pervading daily social behavior. This is effectuated by ceaseless efforts of Jakarta to transmigrate tens of thousands Javanese families all over the Moluccan islands. The more than two million indigenous people are being engulfed by the influx of new settlers.
Reports from the Moluccas tell of the movement of Malay families into these Melanesian islands and also of planned and encouraged intermarriage by the government. Suffering under the political and military repression, which exists throughout Indonesia, the Moluccans are powerless. And because of the naivete (too-easy adaptability) of the Moluccan people, the Javanization of the indigenous culture takes place with negligible opposition.
The relatively tiny and disadvantaged indigenous people of the Moluccas is no match for the one hundred million plus of the Island of Java and the calculated program to institutionalize Javanism throughout Indonesia.
Adat-grounds (indigenous inherited lands) are granted to transmigrants under a "land reform" policy, which leaves indigenous landowner with only limited garden plots in the immediate vicinity of their homes. Often jobless, the diasadvantaged Moluccans have been selling off these lands in time of need.
In the Moluccas' countryside, valuable timber from the rain forest is indiscriminately felled by the Barito Pacific Timber, in conjunction with the armed forces (ABRI), holding a forest concession covering 1 million hectares. The Indonesian government had also issued licenses to Asian fishing companies/trawlers operators (Taiwan, Thailand, Japan, China, South Korea) collaborating with the Indonesian Navy to plunder the Moluccan waters. This have resulted in forced evictions of Moluccan indigenous people, environmental/ecological destruction, damaging undersea national parks in Arafura waters and a fish shortage among the Moluccan people, to whom fish is the principle protein source.
DEMOCRACY AND REFORMATION
On May 21 1998, general Suharto was pressured by the pro-democratic and reformation movements in Indonesia to resign. With the arrival of the next democratically elected fourth president Wahid of Indonesia in 1999, the era of the Orde Baru (Suharto's Order) came to an end. The power of the Indonesian army however, specifically its political and economical role and its territiorial structure outside the island of Java, still exists unimpaired.
Led by the students on the Moluccas the call for democracy, reformation, openness and the right of self-determination got stronger. The Indonesian army (TNI) dispersed a massive demonstration of students in the town of Ambon on November 18, 1998. Some people died. By provocation methods this vertical conflict was transformed into a horizontal conflict in January 1999. Ambon, the surrounding islands, the Southeast Moluccas and the North Moluccas became the scene of a bloody conflict, which was by instigated by officers and politicians loyal to Suharto. INDONESIA: PLAYING FOOTBALL WITH MOLUCCAN LIVES By George Aditjondro
At the same time the military elite, amongst whom army leader general Wiranto, declared the Moluccas a Military Command Area (KODAM). Kontras objects to new TNI commands
This was done to justify the placement of more troops, amongst which special command units, such as Kostrad and Kopassus. The scorched earth policy, which had been applied by the above mentioned command units in East Timor was also applied in Ambon/Maluku.
The arrival of thousands of well armed militants muslims (Lascar Jihad) in May 2000, from outside the Moluccas, encouraged by politicians, such as Amien Rais and Hamzah Haz, the former vice-president, should be considered as State Sponsored Terrorism against the defenceless Moluccan people. [Indonesian Crime in the Moluccas - International Herald Tribune] [THE ILLEGAL LASKAR JIHAD AND ITS DECEITFUL PROTECTOR]
Ambon City in 2001
Ambon City in 2001, showing heavy damage from fighting
Pattimura University in 2001
Pattimura University in 2001, destroyed in fighting
In his article ‘Political economy of Moluccan violence’, Dr. George J. Aditjondro, East Indonesia specialist and teacher at the University of New Castle in Australia, wrote - "Finally, behind all this, the one who stands to gain the most from the political instability in the Moluccas is Suharto, his family and cronies since the political troubles hinder serious efforts to bring them to court to account for their political and economic crimes. They benefit from the disturbances of the peace that serve to perpetuate the Armed Forces' dual function, especially as the Armed Forces, through scores of foundations and pensioned officers are deeply enmeshed in the tentacles of the Suharto family business".
The so-called "Maluku conflict", in which the people of the Maluku islands have been embroiled in a "civil war" between Muslims and Christians, has lasted from 19-1-199 until 11-2-2002. This conflict has probably cost over 20.000 lives and around 500.000 people have fled. In this period the right of self-determination - the RMS ideal - got an extra impulse by the establishment of the "Front for Sovereignty of the Moluccas" (FKM) on December 18, 2000 in Ambon.
In 2004, the hoisting of the flags in honour of the 54th birthday of the Proclamation of the free Republic of the South Moluccas has led to a second row of riots in Ambon. The Indonesian army (TNI) killed 40 demonstrators and imprisoned tens of FKM/RMS political activists.
More recently, pro independence activists have attracted international attention when they danced and unfurled the RMS flag in front of president Susilo Bambang Yudhojono in Ambon on the 29th of June 2007.
POVERTY
Although the Moluccan Islands are blessed with a abundance of natural resources, the mayority of the Moluccan people still live under the poverty level. The poverty level in Maluku Province has increase substantially since 2004. The current poverty level is at approx. 60%, an increase of ~30% since 2004. The "civil war" that took place in Maluku between 1999 to 2003 has a devastating impact on the Moluccan people and has thrown back the economic development of the Moluccan Islands for many decades.
REPRESSION of a Basic Human Right:
FREEDOM OF POLITICAL EXPRESSION
Indonesia: Crackdown on freedom of expression in Maluku [click here]
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL. PUBLIC STATEMENT.
17 December 2008. AI Index No. ASA 21/021/2008.
Moses Tuanakotta - secretary general of FKM/RMS - sentenced to 9 years imprisonment in State Prison Surabaya-Java, on November 29th 2004 after he had conducted a RMS-flagraising ceremony.
On September 2005 Mr. Moses Tuwanakotta sent the following message from his prison cell in Surabaja-Java Indonesia:
"I am in a prison cell at Poro, Eastern Java, in the Sidoarjo District. I am locked in Isolation Block H, Cell nr. 6. In the daytime my cell is darkened, so that I can't read. In the nighttime they turn on the light, until 6 o'clock in the morning.
I have been kept in isolation for five months now, and I do not receive any permission to do something else as sitting. Five months long I have not attended a church service. This is a violation of human rights. Water is hardly drinkable and food hardly edible, but yet I need food and drink, isn't it? The rice is filthy; the vegetables mixed with grass. The water is dirty; to drink water I have to filter it with cotton or woollen clothes; this is a daily practice.
High price of speaking up in Indonesia
27 May 2008
Moluccas International Campaign for Human Rights
A CALL FOR JUSTICE, INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY AND SUPPORT
MICHR is set up in april 2008 to raise international awareness of the current situation in the Moluccas (Maluku) and it is composed of individuals in different countries involved in human rights and justice issues.
Read more
"Indonesia claims to have become a democracy, but democracies don’t put people in prison for peaceful expression."
Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch.
Dr. Michael Alberth Siwabessy
Profession: Doctor and Director of General Regional Hospital in Piru - West Ceram - Central Moluccas.
Arrested on July 3rd, 2008 by the special anti terror unit of the regional police of the Moluccas, Detachment 88.
Charged with subversion because of aiding the fugitive FKM/RMS leader Mr. Simon Saiya with medicines, who is hiding in the West Ceram forests. Mr. Simon Saiya is the deputy of FKM/RMS executive leader dr. Alexander Manuputty.
Hidayat Hopes Obama Won't Provide Fresh Wind To RMS and OPM
Allan Nairn: "Shoot Them on the Spot"
Rewarding War Crimes.
Friday, December 14, 2007
Last June, when President/General Susilo of Indonesia visited one of his provinces, in the Moluccas, he was greeted by local residents performing a traditional dance for him, a ritual often repeated around the world when powerful rulers travel, the implicit message being: this is us, but to you, we bow.
ANTARA :: Police studying possibility terrorist attack in C Maluku Antara 05/06/08 21:08
Al Jazeera's Step Vaessen reports from Horale village in Maluku May 28, 2008
http://youtube.com/watch?v=B6ErhovhaIc
Repression of Supporters of the Republic of Maluku Selatan – ‘Summon Indonesian Ambassador' May 8th, 2008
BRIMOB Oppression in Ambon - the elite Mobile Brigade paramilitary police (Brimob) has a poor human-rights record and a history of killings
INTERNATIONAL ACTION ON CLIMATE CHANGE IS NEEDED
Global warming to threaten many parts of Maluku, expert says
March 30, 2008 at 02:11 am
Human rights must be put at the heart of global climate change ...
2008-09-08
YouTube - [CNN] Asia's Pollution Super-Cloud
2008-11-13
Indigenous Tribes Say Climate Change Harming Way of Life - Science ...
2008-12-07
Govt urged to protect rights of indigenous people
2008-12-14 10:33 AM
UN Report: Extreme weather violates human rights; “Climate change poses a threat to the right of peoples to self-determination”
2009-02-12
Indonesian freedom elusive for some
Aljazeera.net TUESDAY, MAY 27, 2008 5:18
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/5FFDF8F9-6229-42A7-9F7C-D366E7C9E9FA.htm
Indonesia: Separatist Gets Life In Prison For Waving Flag In Front Of President
MySinchew 2008.04.04
JAKARTA, INDONESIA: A court has sentenced the leader of a separatist group in eastern Indonesia to life in prison for waving the flag of a mostly Christian secessionist movement in front of the president last year.At court official said at least 19 others were convicted of treason and sentenced to between 10 and 20 years over the flag-waving demonstration,.........
Read More related articles
'Nonsense' life sentence for separatist
Lilian Budianto , The Jakarta Post , Jakarta Sat, 04/05/2008 12:44 PM | Headlines
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Indonesia General Says Separatists Could Be Shot - AFP
Dow Jones Newswires 12-11-07
JAKARTA (AFP) -- The military chief overseeing security in Indonesia's restive Maluku province has told his soldiers they may shoot separatists on the spot if necessary, his spokesman said Wednesday.
The Indonesian government employs Snipers against the Moluccan people
INTERNATIONAL CRISIS GROUP: The Indonesian government should give urgent priority to identifying and prosecuting the snipers responsible for dozens of deaths on 25th April 2004 in Ambon. Read More
Related article:
Snipers Claim More Victims in Ambon
Torture widespread in Indonesia: UN - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) click here to read more
