By CWR Staff

The violence began on January 19: the Muslim festival of Eidel-Fitr, which marks the end of Ramadan. The immediate cause of the clash, apparently, was a fistfight that somehow broke out between a Christian bus driver and a Muslim migrant worker. Within hours that personal confrontation had escalated into a full-scale riot, with roving mobs engaged in pitched battles on the streets. After the first series of clashes, the Indonesian government reported that 50 people had been killed, several hundred injured, and several hundred homes and businesses destroyed. While those statistics were frightening in them selves, authorities in Jakarta were particularly concerned by the fact that the roving bands which accounted for most of the deaths and destruction had also burned down two mosques.

The specter of religious conflict has been looming over Indonesia since the summer of 1997, when the sudden collapse of the country’s economy precipitated waves of unemployment and political unrest. Although Christians account for less than 10 percent of Indonesia’s population, the ethnic Chinese who make up most of the Christian population have established themselves as successful traders and merchants, and now control a disproportionate share of the country’s wealth. That fact has been the source of some ethnic and religious resentments—resentments that became much more acute as overall economic conditions deteriorated.

Late last year, when riots broke out across Indonesia, the prejudice against Chinese Christians had been made manifest in a series of arson attacks against Christian churches. Now the destruction of mosques in Ambon appeared to be a kind of retaliation. Sure enough, soon after the destruction of those two mosques, there were attacks on several Christian churches in Ambon, followed again by a series of raids on mosques. Among the Christian shrines destroyed by vandals was the Gereja Tua, or Old Church, which had been built by some of the first Portuguese colonists on Ambon in 1780.

Fearing the outbreak of any ugly religious conflict, the Indonesian government sent troops to Ambon to keep the peace. After the first week of rioting, 5,000 soldiers patrolled the streets, with orders to shoot anyone who was seen carrying a weapon. At last the fighting subsided, at least temporarily, and religious leaders had a chance to assess the damage that had been done to both their buildings and—more importantly—their communities.

Shelter and investigation

On January 26, religious leaders from several different faiths came together in Jakarta to issue a condemnation of the violence and a call for peace. Bishop Peter Canisius Mandagi of Am bon joined with Rev. Sammy Titaley of the Moluccan synod of (Protestant) Churches and H. Sanusi of the Indonesian Council of Muslim Leaders in a statement that insisted, "We want all feuds and violence to be stopped. We want a common life with peaceful coexistence, and brotherhood restored." The religious leaders pointed with approval to the example set by Christian youngsters who were seen guarding mosques in Ambon to prevent further acts of arson and vandalism.

However, the situation in Ambon remained tense over the following weekend, as at least 10,000 people crowded into churches, mosques, and military installations in search of security against the mobs that continued to attack isolated homes and storefront shops. One Muslim leader, Muhammad Nur Wenno, estimated that some 50,000 people had left their homes in search of safety. Many others, unable to find any secure shelter nearby, remaining at home behind locked doors.

In one episode that illustrated the high level of tension in the Molucca province, a Catholic priest claimed that at least 40 Christians had been killed during a mob attack on his parish in the town of Telaga Kodok. The local police commander did not deny that a savage attack had taken place; he only suggested that Father Stefan Sabong had inflated the casualty toll. "It is impossible that the number of Christians killed is that high," Colonel Karyono said. And no one disputed the pastor’s report that the Christians who survived the assault had fled "with only the clothes on their backs."

Finding it impossible to reassure residents that they could safely return to their homes, police and military officials did their best to improve living conditions in the emergency shelters. Wiranto, commander of the Indonesian armed forces, visited Ambon and brought cash contribution to help provide food at the temporary shelters. Earlier the local military commander, Maj. Gen. Amir Sembiring, had donated several tons of rice, along with powdered milk and various medicines, for the families taking refuge on army bases.

Search for answers

During what would prove to be only a temporary period of comparative calm, religious leaders searched for a cause of the sudden burst of violence. Christian spokesmen admitted that religious and ethnic tensions had been growing on Ambon for several months. Joseph Pattiasina, secretary of the Communion of Indonesian Churches, pointed out that the Indonesian financial crisis had prompted a wave of immigration to Ambon. The new arrivals —most of them Muslims—had radically altered the ethnic composition of the island, where Christians had previously constituted a majority.

Several religious leaders put forward a more sinister explanation for the violence. The riots were being deliberately staged, they argued—perhaps by military leaders in Jakarta who wanted some pretext for the imposition of martial law, to curb the political protests which had driven President Suharto from office and now undermined the authority of his successor, President Habibie. Many eyewitnesses confirmed at least one part of that theory, reporting that the roving bands had formed around a few ringleaders, and followed their lead. One Catholic priest insisted that he had watched the same ringleaders orchestrate attacks first on an Islamic mosque, then on a Christian church—a pattern that certainly suggested some motive other than religious fervor.

Military and police spokesmen never offered any official comment on these conspiracy theories. But they did announce, late in January, that they had arrested 50 people who had been identified as "provocateurs" in the rioting, and were looking for several others.

Still the fighting continued, flaring up occasionally throughout February and into March. On February 2 several people were injured when a fight in a marketplace flared up into a rock-throwing mob confrontation. Police waded into the crowd swinging their clubs, and fired warning shots into the air, before finally gaining control of the situation. Two weeks later, a confrontation between rival gangs led to 20 deaths. In this case, witnesses reported, many of the casualties were caused by police gunfire. Gen. Wiranto had recently announced that he had instructed his soldiers to shoot all rioters on sight; the troops apparently followed those directions zealously.

Military officials backed away from their policy only slightly in March, when another series of clashes had left seven people dead. Once again eyewitnesses testified that most of those who died had been killed by the military police; a spokesman for the military conceded that the shootings were "believed to have violated standard military procedure." The accusations that soldiers were aggravating the violence came at a time when Christian leaders in another troubled Indonesian province, East Timor, were also claiming that military intervention had aggravated rather than solved the civil unrest there.

Ethnic cleansing and Jihad

By now the fighting in Ambon had produced serious repercussions in the nation’s capital. Muslim leaders were complaining about what they saw as a timid government reaction to the fighting; the proper response, Islamic radicals argued, would be a harsh military crackdown on Christians in Ambon. At a March 5 rally in Jakarta, an estimated 100,000 Muslims marched through the streets, chanting in support of a jihad against the Christian troublemakers.

Several religious leaders put forward a more sinister explanation for the violence. The riots were being deliberately staged, they argued.

From Ambon itself, some Islamic leaders voiced their support for that militant attitude. Abdullah Soulissa, the head of Ambon’s al-Fatah Mosque Foundation, told reporters that the violence in his region was caused by an "ethnic cleansing" campaign, in which Christians were hoping to drive Muslims out of Molucca. Speaking to journalists at a Jakarta conference organized by the Islamic Crescent Party, Soulissa also charged that Christians were manipulating the casualty reports to camouflage their intent. "Thousands have died, not hundreds," he said. While he conceded that he did not know how many of the victims were Muslims, he insisted, "the Muslims are the ones who are being forced to leave."

Joseph Pattiasina of the Communion of Indonesian Churches quickly countered that accusation. At a March 13 press conference of his own, Pattiasina charged that Soulissa was engaged in an irresponsible attempt to whip up emotions, thus contributing to the climate of violence in Ambon. Pattiasina claimed that the tensions in Ambon were already so high that mobs needed no further incitement to violence. "People don’t know why they are killing one another," he said. "They just attack one another."

Certainly the prevailing climate of fear and intimidation was inhibiting the efforts of those who sought to re store peace to Ambon. On March 10 one influential Islamic leader, Abdurrahman Wahid, told a television audience that Molucca’s Governor Saleh Latuconsina should step down. Latuconsina was overly sympathetic to the interests of Muslims, Wahid said, and in any case the governor had proved unable to stop the violence.

Those remarks echoed the views of many Christians in Ambon, and it seemed reasonable to infer that Wahid was attempting to defuse the tension by recognizing the validity of the Christians’ complaints. But his re marks provoked a backlash from within the Muslim community; on the day following his television appearance, 500 militant Muslims gathered at the al-Fatah mosque to denounce Wahid and call for stronger action to suppress what they insisted was a Christian-inspired campaign to drive Muslims out of Molucca. The more militant Muslims reported that some 50,000 of their co-religionists had already fled the region, shifting the ethnic composition of the islands so that Christians re gained the majority.

More urgent calls for peace

On March 9, Catholic and Muslim leaders again sat down in Ambon to discuss ways in which they might help to bring an end to the internecine fighting. Indonesian military leaders, who had found themselves unable to quell the unrest even after twice reinforcing the military presence on the island, sponsored the meeting. The religious leaders duly answered the government’s re quest for help, although a few clerics were heard to grumble that they could not always serve as "the fire brigade," extinguishing the violence that others—including over-enthusiastic policemen —had incited.

As the latest peace conference began, Bishop Mandagi of Ambon told reporters: "We ask all religious people to control themselves, restrain their emotions and put down all weapons and support peace." He was again joined by H. Sanusi and Rev. Sammy Titaley—the local representatives of the Muslim and Protestant communities, respectively—in the call for an end to the fighting. The government also elicited a statement from the top-ranking military officers of the Molucca region, also demanding an end to confrontation.

On Friday, March 12, thousands of Muslim students joined in promoting the cause of peace. Marching in several different cities across the country, the students demanded an end to the violence in Ambon, and issued a warning to military leaders that they must handle all disturbances impartially.

On March 14, speaking to pilgrims in St. Peter’s Square, Pope John Paul added his voice to the chorus. He denounced the "cruel abuses" which had "overthrown a tradition of harmony among Christians and Muslims" in Ambon. The Pontiff continued: "I make a special exhortation, especially to those who are fomenting these disorders, to abandon violence—which is the cause of countless suffering—and to return once again to the path of understanding."