NSW: Islamic threat from Ambon violence

AAP General News (Australia)
04-28-2000
NSW: Islamic threat from Ambon violence

By Jordan Baker

SYDNEY, April 28 AAP - Religious violence in Indonesia's Maluku Islands was an attempt
to clear Christians from the region and create a Muslim state, a Christian agency said
today.

Baroness Caroline Cox, president of Christian Solidarity Worldwide and deputy speaker
of the British House of Lords, told journalists in Sydney today that Muslim groups were
targeting Christians.

"It does seem a particular attempt to terrorise and maybe drive out Christian communities,"

she said.

Baroness Cox, who recently visited Indonesia, said there were reports that more than
1,000 jihad warriors (Islamic crusaders) were massing in the Maluku Islands, prompting
Christians to flee to the jungle in terror.

"The objective of the jihad warriors ... is to make sure Indonesia is an Islamic state
by the year 2003, and this (religious violence) is part of that strategy," she said.

She also said there were reports some local muslims were being funded by foreign Islamic
militants, while Indonesian authorities were making little attempt to stop the violence.

Baroness Cox called on the Australian government to encourage Indonesia to allow international
observers into the area.

"What is happening there is serious suffering. It's enormous," she said.

"(But) there is no independent information coming out of the islands. As an underpinning
for an effective response, there needs to be active information, and that information
needs to be impartial and convincing.

"So please, could you do everything possible. I know Australia has a very good record
of active intervention, to push for and provide independent, objective external observers."

She said Australia's interest would be served by intervention, as preventing the violence
could stave off the arrival of fundamentalist muslims in the region.

"If Indonesia becomes ... an Islamist state or a basis for militant Islamism ... it
is right on Australia's doorstep," Baroness Cox told journalists.

"That, I think, could be of real interest (to the Australian government)."

Some political analysts believe the Indonesian government and military are powerless
to halt the clashes in the province - formerly known as the Spice Islands from Dutch colonial
times - that have claimed at least 1,300 lives in the past year.

Some have said international peacekeepers are needed to stop the fighting.

The current sectarian violence originated in Ambon, the capital of the Malukus, in
January last year, sparked by a trivial dispute between a local Christian driver and a
Muslim.

The brawl quickly degenerated into open clashes between Christians and Muslims and
within weeks had spread to the other islands, leaving thousands of both religions dead,
and forcing tens of thousands of others to flee the islands.

AAP jb/sb/apm

KEYWORD: INDON COX

2000 AAP Information Services Pty Limited (AAP) or its Licensors.