Moluccas International Campaign for Human Rights
  • THESE ARE THE MOLUCCAN ISLANDS: FACTS & OPINIONS
  • MELANESIA VERSUS INDONESIA
  • ABOUT MOLUCCAS INTERNATIONAL CAMPAIGN FOR HUMAN RIGHTS
  • REPRESSION OF A BASIC HUMAN RIGHT IN MALUKU: FREEDOM OF POLITICAL EXPRESSION
  • SOUTH MOLUCCAS ISLANDS’ ILLEGAL OCCUPATION BY JAKARTA
  • MOLUCCAS SOVEREIGNTY FRONT - FRONT KEDAULATAN MALUKU (FKM)
  • LETTERS DR. ALEXANDER H. MANUPUTTY TO THE UN & HEADS OF STATE AND GOVERNMENT AND AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL
  • PESTA DEMOKRASI: FRONT KEDAULATAN MALUKU MENUNTUT PENGEMBALIAN KEDAULATAN RMS 25 APRIL 1950 – 25 APRIL 2014
  • PHOTOS FKM-RMS DEMONSTRATION IN FRONT OF PARLIAMENT HOUSE OF ADELAIDE, AUSTRALIA ON OCTOBER 26, 2010 & SEPTEMBER 7, 2010
  • PROKLAMASI NEGARA REPUBLIK MALUKU SELATAN (RMS)
  • INDONESIA: A SYSTEM BUILT ON CORRUPTION
  • INDONESIA GELAP‼️DARK INDONESIA
  • PRABOWO SUBIANTO: INDONESIA’S MASSACRE GENERAL
  • PRABOWO’S INDONESIA: ​A RETURN TO MILITARY SUPREMACY ‼️
  • KORUPSI - KEMISKINAN DAN KETERBELAKANGAN DI MALUKU - CORRUPTION - POVERTY AND UNDERDEVELOPMENT IN THE MOLUCCAS
  • PALM OIL PLANTATION CRIME IN INDONESIA AND ITS CORRUPT POLITICAL MACHINE
  • MASELA - OIL AND GAS BLOCKS CAN LIBERATE MALUKU FROM POVERTY
  • ILLEGAL GOLD RUSH ON BURU ISLAND IN THE MOLUCCAS
  • SAVE ARU ISLANDS
  • SAVE MASYARAKAT ADAT DALAM MENJAGA HUTAN KEPULAUAN ARU
  • SAVE ROMANG
  • INDONESIAN MILITARY INVOLVEMENT WITH AGGRESSIVE MINING, ILLEGAL LOGGING AND ILLEGAL FISHING IN THE MOLUCCAS
  • LASKAR JIHAD - SUHARTO COMPANIONS AND THE MOLUCCAN CIVIL WAR - JUSTICE DEMAND
  • MOLUCCAS: GENOCIDE ON THE SLY - INDONESIA’S TRANSMIGRATION PROGRAM
  • TRANSMIGRASI ADALAH ANCAMAN LATEN TERHADAP EKSISTENSI GEOGRAFI, EKONOMI DAN SOSIAL POLITIK RAKYAT MALUKU DALAM JANGKA PANJANG
  • ECOLOGY & SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT IN THE MOLUCCAS
  • DISPLACED PEOPLE IN THE MOLUCCAS - PENGUNGSI DI MALUKU
  • INSIDE INDONESIA’S WAR ON TERROR
  • TNI, BRIMOB AND STATE TERROR IN THE MOLUCCAS
  • IMPUNITY AND THE INDONESIAN MASTERS OF TERROR
  • STOP KILLING - ASSAULTING AND KIDNAPPING JOURNALISTS IN INDONESIA ‼️
  • 8 MARCH INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY
  • 26 JUNE UN INTERNATIONAL DAY IN SUPPORT OF VICTIMS OF TORTURE
  • 9 AUGUST - UN INTERNATIONAL DAY OF THE WORLD’S INDIGENOUS PEOPLES
  • RIGHTS OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLES - HAK ASASI MASYARAKAT ADAT
  • THE DUTCH - INDONESIA CORPORATE CONNECTION
  • LIBERATING OUR COLONIAL MINDSET
  • UNPO: IN PURSUIT OF THE RIGHT TO SELF-DETERMINATION
  • NKRI DIDIRIKAN DI ATAS KONSEP YANG SALAH
  • GAJAH DENGAN GAJAH BERLAGA, ORANG MALUKU MATI DI TENGAH - TENGAH
  • THE PLAYERS BEHIND THE MALUKU MADNESS
  • INDONESIAN STATE SPONSORED UNBRIDLED NICKEL EXPLOITATION IN NORTH MOLUCCAS: SERVING THE ECONOMIC INTEREST OF INDONESIAN OLIGARCHS AND CHINA
  • THE IMPACTS OF CLIMATE CRISIS ON SMALL ISLANDS STATES
  • MOTHER ISLAND SERAM UNDER SIEGE ‼️
  • SURAT TERBUKA KEPADA ​PRESIDEN JOKO WIDODO
  • FILM "DIRTY VOTE"! TERBONGKAR SEMUA SKENARIO CURANG!
  • MALUKU FOR KANAKY
  • KUTUKAN NIKEL | BLOODY NICKEL
  • PESTA OLIGARKI
  • SURAT TERBUKA KEPADA SELURUH RAKYAT BANGSA MALUKU
  • PESAN NATAL DAN TAHUN BARU BAGI SELURUH ​ANAK BANGSA MALUKU
  • LAND GRABBING, MINING, FOOD ESTATE, PALM OIL & ENVIRONMENTAL CRIME IN MALUKU
  • CONGRATULATIONS TO PRESIDENT TRUMP AFTER HIS INAUGURATION
  • THE NUTMEG’S CURSE: ​PARABLES FOR A PLANET IN CRISIS
  • “BLOODY NICKEL THE SERIES: REPUBLIK RENTE”

THE TRAGEDY OF MALUKU

By George J. Aditjondro, Ph.D.
(Department of Sociology and Anthropology, University of Newcastle Australia)
Lecture and Seminar at the Institute of Aboriginal Studies and  Research at Macquarie University in Sydney on May 2, 2000:
The orgy of violence in Timor Lorosa'e (East Timor), last year, has reminded the world of the plight of the Melanesian peoples who live west of the 141st Meridian East. The standard belief is that a third of the pre-invasion 600,000 East Timorese people have died during the Indonesian occupation.
This is, unfortunately, only one part of the plight of the Western Melanesian, or "Indo-Melanesian" peoples who have lived under the wings of the Republic of Indonesia. ​Or, are still living under the ​

Indonesian colonial yoke, which consist of three
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other groups, namely (a) the West Papuan people who inhabit the western half of the island of New Guinea, which consists of abour 240 ethno-linguistic groups; (b). the Maluku (Moluccan) people, who inhabit the more or less thousand islands of Maluku (Moluccas), west of New Guinea, among whom there are distinctions between North Maluku, South Maluku, and Southeast Maluku; and (c). the Eastern Nusa Tenggara people, who inhabit the western part of the island of Timor and the adjacent island groups of Flores, Sumba, and the smaller islands off Flores, such as the traditional whaling island of Lembata.
 
Public knowledge of the plight of these Indo-Melanesian peoples is very limited, in Indonesia as well as abroad, for the following reasons. Firstly, according to standard anthropological knowledge, Melanesia (= the islands, or archipelago of the black-skinned peoples) end at the western tip of the island New Guinea. Secondly, the international community of nation-states, as represented by the United Nations, has only supported Timor Lorosa'e's claim to nationhood and had never accepted  Indonesia's annexation of the former Portuguese colony. On the other hand, the annexation of West Papua by Indonesia in 1963 has been 'legalized' by the UN General Assembly when on September 21, 1962, it recognized the results of the so-called 'Act of Free Choice' in West Papua a month earlier.
 
The third reason is that the international community has religiously clung to two myths about the Indonesian nation-state. Firstly, the myth that Indonesia is the legitimate 'successor state' of the Dutch East Indies colony, and secondly, the myth that the Indonesian people -- with the exception of the Chinese ethnic minority -- is a homogenous nation, like Japan, for instance.
 
The first myth is supported by many Indonesian citizens as well as all nations which consists predominantly of people of European descent. Rejecting this 'successor state' myth may force many nation-states in the world to reject their own post-colonial boundaries, which may consequently force them to recognize the pre-invasion boundaries of all the indigenous political entities which have been brushed over by the European settlers and their descendants.
 
The irony of this 'successor state' myth is that many post-colonial nation-state in Asia and Latin America have broken down the existing colonial boundaries. Spain's American colonies do not consist of a single state with its capital somewhere in Bogota, but consists of dozens of independent yet Spanish-speaking (not Mayan or Incan speaking, sic!) nation-states.
 
Likewise in Asia, the former British colony of India now consists of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and, lest we forget, Burma. Its British counterpart in Southeast Asia consists of Malaysia, Singapore, and Brunei Darussalam. In other words, the existence of the archipelagic republic of Indonesia which stretches from Sabang on the northern tip of Sumatra to Merauke near West Papua's border with Papua New Guinea, is certainly not a God given, natural construct. It is a historical construct and most probably, a historical mistake if its defenders are too stubborn to transform it into a more democratic construct, where all the ethno-linguistic groups and 'supra-tribal groups'(1) could live in harmony with each other with none dominating others.
 
Speaking about 'supra-tribal groups' we are touching on the second myth, namely that Indonesia is a homogenous nation(2), which is certainly incorrect. One can even say that apart from being multi-ethnic, Indonesia is also a multi-racial nation, if we classify the Melanesian peoples as belonging to a different race than the Malays.
 
Apart from the recent migrations of Arabic, Indian, Chinese and Europeans and whose ancestors have no geographical links with any place within the Nusantara archipelago, the Indonesian peoples basically consist of three 'supra-tribal groups' who migrated to this archipelago hundreds or thousands of years ago.
The first 'supra-tribal group' are the Melanesian peoples, to be followed by Proto-Malay, and finally came Deutero-Malay peoples who linguistically, belong to the Polynesian 'race'. The waves of Malay migrations have pushed the Melanesian people more and more to Eastern Indonesia, from where they eventually migrated to the South Pacific. In Eastern Indonesia itself, inter-marriages of Malay migrants with the indigenous Melanesian peoples have resulted in the Maluku, 

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HIRA I NI ENTUB FO I NI, IT DID ENTUB FO IT DID. – A PERSON’S PROPERTY SHALL REMAIN THAT PERSON’S PROPERTY, OUR PROPERTY REMAINS OUR OWN.