III - The Brussels meeting

1. Opening words a. Introductory address by Hanja Maij-Weggen Member of the European Parliament and Chair of the meeting. Mrs Maij-Weggen opened her speech by an analysis of who is behind the conflict in the Moluccas. The conflict has been provoked by different groups whose goals are similar, namely to destabilise the government and stop the process of democratisation, because a status quo would serve their interests better. She then mentioned the groups that are supposedly behind the conflict: 1) Part of the military; according to her sources about 25-30 % of the military is not loyal to the government. 2) Aggressive, religious groups, such as the Laskar Jihad. 3) A broad group of business people who profited during the New Order of President Soeharto. 4) Militias, i.e. groups largely consisting of relatively young people who are often poor equipped and used by the military. According to Mrs Maij these groups are trying to provoke conflicts where ever they can: in the Moluccas, Aceh etc. This is not so difficult, since Indonesia is characterised by its great variety of religious and ethnic groups. In the Moluccas they succeeded in setting both religious communities against each other by exploiting already existing feelings of animosity. They also made use of the social tensions caused by the massive inflow of migrants. So one can conclude that the conflict has been provoked by external forces. However, it also involved the local communities. Mrs Maij then continued by saying that a strong state should be capable of protecting its citizens against such provocations. At this moment, however, the Indonesian state is not very strong. The Moluccan people themselves and especially their community leaders therefore have to sit together and try to make peace with each other. At the same time they have to warn their people not to allow themselves to be provoked by groups who are trying to destabilise the government. Otherwise, Indonesia might return to a military regime. This last point, however, puts the international community in a difficult position. Normally it would put pressure on a government, if faced with a situation that is intolerable. In the case of Indonesia, however, this would mean playing into the hands of those groups that want to destabilise the government. Therefor Mrs Maij wanted to repeat her central message, namely that muslims and christians in the Moluccas have to sit together and talk, whilst not allowing certain groups to provoke them. b. Statement by Nasrudin Sumintapura Ambassador of the Republic of Indonesia to the European Union. Ambassador Nasrudin expressed his sincere appreciation to International Dialogues Foundation and the European Parliament for organizing this round table. He found it encouraging to note that participants of this important event included also religious and community leaders from Indonesia. He referred to the commitment of the Indonesian government to finding a peaceful solution to the internal problem of Maluku. In this context the Indonesian government is prepared to work together with the international community in facilitating such a peaceful dialogue for the interests of the people of Maluku. The Indonesian Ambassador recognized that the proposal of this round table is not to intervene in the internal matters of Indonesia, but that it reflects a strong support of the international community for Indonesia in preserving its territorial integrity and national unity. c. Statement by Peter Idenburg Chairman of the Executive Committee of International Dialogues Foundation Mr Idenburg underlined that the aim of this meeting is to strengthen the international dimension of the coalition building for peace in the Moluccas. It is in line of the objectives of International Dialogues Foundation that such a coalition should be based on the coalition of peace between the groups that are directly concerned. Therefor the presence of Baku Bae and the other Moluccan delegation members is essential for the project. The role of the actors from abroad, like the European Parliament can be important, but can do so, only by being supportive to the initiatives that are taken on the spot. An important aspect of this initiative is also the participation of those Indonesian groups that work on a national level like the Nahdlatul Ulama and the churches. It is important for the very reason that the present conflict in the Moluccas cannot be considered as a local conflict, but as a conflict in which actors and groups that operate on a national level for the better or for the worse are deeply involved. 2. Speeches a. Rationale of the Reconciliation Process By Ichsan Malik, Facilitator of the Moluccan reconciliation process * * As the keynotespeaker of the meeting Mr Ichsan Malik delivered the speech on the aims and strategy of Baku Bae, in which he referred to the publication Baku Bae Maluku, in particular to the chapter on the Rationale of the Reconciliation Process in Maluku. Indonesia enters into transitional democracy that is entrenched with political dramas of vested interests and group struggles, vertical conflicts of the people against the mismanagement of the state, and horizontal conflicts among drenched with blood. We have seen such development crystalise clearly in the northern tip of Sumatra in Aceh, easternmost Indonesia of West Papua, West Kalimantan, in Central Sulawesi town of Paso, and latest the gruesome Sampit clashes in Central Kalimantan from February 2001 up to now. The most disturbing, however, is definitely Malukan protracted ethno-religious bloodbath, at least after the 1965 massacre in the country. The Malukan horizontal conflicts constitute a seamless picture of appaling dramas of human degradation. The whole social system, economic, political, human relation-related, legal and leadership-related, has been destroyed, out of function, as if the only functioning principle is jungle law, when those who are strong would survive; the strong provocateurs, having weapons and guns, are the conducing parties. Close observations, as came up from the consultative polling manifestly show that the local people themselves do not motivate the conflicts. As far as the structures of the conflicts and the cause of its perpetuation since the very beginning towards the latest development in the conflict zones are concerned, the civilian and military elites are strongly suspected to have exploited and badly dragged religious sentiments into the realm of corrupt politics. The mismanagement of the development process, particularly during decades of former regimes, has plunged people into dependency traps on the central government and the military. The result of mismanagement has induced people into susceptibility to either direct or indirect provocations. Observation also indicates that there exists a very strong power that originates from outside Maluku that controls the whole series of conflicts and clashes. As a result, the prolonged conflicts have left the whole society in ruins, immerged in alienation, torn apart into severe segregation along religious line. "Truth and Resolution" The present condition of Maluku is that of a state of no government and zero popular trust. The first phenomenon is seen clearly from the unilateral weight of security approach of the Malukan emergency government. The latter has made no initiative that could be implemented from below, because under-representation of the Malukan people is fertile ground for further provocation and recurrent violent clashes. Civilian people on the grassroots level in the Malukan community have found life self-chocking until not any solution could be imagined. However, the popular mandate to whoever had the courage and enough capability to implement the peace deal into reality could no longer be disillusioned. Reconciliation then is a must and yet it merely remains as a means toward concrete rehabilitation of social life in the communities. Otherwise the reconciliation will soon be back, facing popular distrust. The transitional dimension of these efforts is not only "opening up truth and reconciliation", but to establish the dimension of "truth and resolution" in order to help people encouraging themselves out of the fear to face their future. This includes both approaches: first "truth and reconciliation" and second "truth and justice". We learn from the South African experience, but also the justice approach of Nuremberg. Conflicting parties should reconcile, in the first place, to rebuild the social strength, strong enough to uphold legal enforcement when selectively identified culprits are taken to courts. This will hinder impunity that made collapse the whole social and political fabric of society. In this framework, the emphasis and the balance, however, will be put on the resolution aspects of the efforts. This will give people concrete hopes and keep their trust on themselves, recovering their human strength, to implement what really should be the content of their participation within the rehabilitation process. Reintegration and Reorientation As far as the process advances, there have been some major fruits. Conflicting people who had long cut off contacts started to restore relations even without any further intervention. The development of their efforts to maintain contacts with each other, still in the midst of segregation, is surprising, because it was quicker than it was thought to happen. Small daily activities in the planned peace zones have persisted and are in immediate need of facilitation. Support from lower levels of military officers has also been impressive, let alone their superiors who are now much more under central control in Jakarta. The local police head has agreed to support the creation of the peace zones. In other words, geographical and social and communication reintegration process between two large blocks of communities of muslim Leihitu in the north and the christian strategic areas of Paso is indeed advancing yet in need of a definite, tangible aid facilitation. Meanwhile, the super structure of Malukan society, which was once spearheaded by the university of the Pattimura community, is also in progress to be reoriented. The university compounds have been gutted down to the ground, a direct symbol of destruction of the Malukan intellectual culture. Malukan intellectuals are now trying to reorientate the future society and the university's role in rebuilding the communities for better future. Reorientation of the higher education will include among others the establishment of the faculty of "Truth and Reconciliation", while recreating the interprovincial network. The establishment of such a centre will deal with one of the main present problems of Indonesia: governmental mismanagement, which has practically brought the country on the brink of complete collapse. On the basis of all the above-mentioned facts, we conclude, by imploring those who have commitment to immediately resolve the Malukan conflicts to fully support the initiatives to reconciliation. Purpose: - to definitively stop violence that has recurred over the last two years in Maluku; to restart economic and people's education activities; and to recover social life and security, that should be established on the basis of the local system, supported by all elements of the society in a participatory way. - to create two neutral, free-violence zones, as a precondition of possible interaction and forward-looking orientation to accelerate rehabilitation, accompanied by people consultation, strenghthened by group networking, and legal process. Expected outcome and long-term effects - Other parts of the Ambon society will gradually be affected to open up isolation and segregation, as communication and transportation step by step return into normalcy, starting from the pivotal joint areas of two large blocks of communities of muslim Leihitu in the north and the christian strategic areas of Paso. - Ambon as the epicentre of the whole Malukan conflict would also affect other regions such as conflicts in the northern side of Ceram Island, in which at the moment clashes are taking place. - Destroyed local economy will steadily recover, thereby increasing the economic capacity of the people by income-generation. - Social life will be more open as intercommunity barriers are brought down. - Stronger control from below from the grassroots will also be strengthened vis a vis the corrupt power of the state. - Empowered civil society, in its turn, would strengthen Malukan society with the reorientation of the state-owned Pattimura University. b. Social Conflict in the Moluccas from the Ethnic and Religious Perspectives By K.H. Hasyim Muzadi, General Chairman of Nahdlatul Ulama * * An important contribution was delivered by the General Chairman of the Nahdlatul Ulama, who also spoke on behalf of the Chairman of the Nahdlatul Ulama professor H. Cecep Syarifuddin. Mr Muzadi referred to the fact that the Nahdlatul Ulama is a muslim organisation that is mainly concerned with religious practice in life, social welfare, education, and nation and character building in general, comprising a membership of over 50 million people in Indonesia. He brought the greetings from President Abdurrahman Wahid, a former General Chairman of Nahdlatul Ulama. Introduction When social conflict arose in the Moluccas, the Executive Board of Nahdlatul Ulama instantly sought to make contact with the conflicting religious leaders, muslims and christians alike, at the local level in the Moluccas area and at the national level in Jakarta. Our Executive Board felt most concerned to know that the prime mover of the widespread riotous conflict was a mere trifle, and initially was in the form of personal bickering between individual muslims and christians. This strife emerged to the surface among public transportation drivers and or the passengers, fights over selling locations, land ownership disputes in relation to traditional conventions, and other matters that are not concerned with religious issues. However, the social conflicts seem to be of national scale. Its escalation was speedy, widespread, complex and eventually bewildering and frightening as various weapons, both assembled and standardised, were resorted to. This riotous social conflict was completely unforeseen on the grounds that the historical background of the Moluccas was a prototype of ethnic brotherhood and also a prototype of a harmonious religious life among people professing different religious beliefs. This historical phenomenon had always been universally recognised and even exemplified by other regions. As a matter of fact, the Moluccas have offered a significant contribution towards developing the value and the spirit of Bhinneka Tunggal Ika, the principle of Unity in Diversity, which guarantees the establishment of the United Republic of Indonesia. The Moluccas had never been involved in any conflict, nether ethnic, religious, racial, intergroup nor interdenominational. This is closely related to the integration of cultural revitalisation, religious culturalisation and the social-cultural insight of the Moluccas community in the perspective of ethnic and religious interrelationships based on the cultural spirit and value in the form of pela, gandong, bongso and larwul ngaba. This historical background of traditional wisdom of the Moluccan community puts greater emphasis on virtues and the spirit of forgiveness, rather than mutual hatred and revenge. Violence, mutual hatred an revenge are to them forms of dehumanisation that are utterly intolerable. Their social attitude and behaviour are inclusive, tolerant, open, peaceful and civilised. They are invariably willing to regard each and every member of the community as their equal without any discrimination, and are prepared to seek and accept the truth and the goodness of other parties. They are highly committed to the idea of togetherness, which serves to strengthen resilience against conflict, and any conflict that arises in the community life is dealt with in an intelligent, wise and civilised manner. Consequently, it is possible to develop a selfsupporting community that is receptive and resilient in facing all kinds of problems, problems that are caused by geostrategic and geopolitical factors; external intervention; ethnic religious, racial and inter-group problems; in justice; backwardness and socio-cultural conflict. The Roots of Social Conflict Efforts to identify the causes of the social conflict in the Moluccas that have been made by concerned parties, among others by various Self-supporting Social Institutions, the All-Indonesian Forum of rectors, and even the Social Reconciliation Centre in the Moluccan Province, have revealed that the roots of the social conflict are as follows: 1) Centralised system and mechanism of bureaucracy. The centralised system and mechanism of bureaucracy that was developed throughout the New Order regime gave rise to many drawbacks and shortcomings in the national life in general. It caused the weakening of various social institutions, the fading of personal communication, and social as well as cultural erosions. Government and social institutions did not function efficiently in observing and analysing the dynamics of local conflicts so that there was lack of comprehensive and integral anticipation and solution. The political elite seemed to be unconcerned about the sufferings endured by the people in areas that are vulnerable to conflicts, especially in the Moluccas. 2) Excessive intervention on the part of the central government in the social, economic, political, cultural and religious realms induced the kind of attitude and behaviour that might lead to disintegration. The central government intervened in such a way that the Moluccan community felt a certain anxiety that was caused by a feeling of being neglected, of being treated unjustly and discriminated against. They felt that their living environment (their lebensraum) was becoming narrower and narrower. Their housing pattern had no legal guarantee and certainty, which had the effect of lessening the meaning and function of self-identity that should be manifested and confirmed in the form of a sense of community, physical safety, and material well-being. 3) Distribution of power that was felt to be unjust by the Moluccan community. This produced fear of the danger of marginalisation in playing future roles. A feeling of marginalisation is fertile soil that is easily exploited to create conflicts in the community. Marginalisation comes to the surface due to political, economic, siocio-cultural, religious and other kinds of policies. 4) Social and economic imbalance due to discrepancies in incomes that influenced the control of local economic assets between newcomers and local inhabitants, labour and environment problems. Besides the persistent corruption, collusion and nepotistic practices, there were discrepancies of opportunities among social groups due to regional, ethnic, racial, religious and lingual primordialisms, all of which were great potentials for conflict. 5) Ethnic and religious problems that were related to the emergence of justice, social gaps, jealousy and friction because there had been no patterns for brotherhood relationships; and no relationships and dialogues among the various ethnic groups, religions, races, and other groups in a sincere and serious manner. 6) One-way communication and information in the relationship between the authorities and the people which gave rise to social disfunction in various aspects of social life. Therefore, there arose a meaningless relationship in which the communication and information gaps between the authorities and the people became wider. Moreover, the people who were directly involved in the conflict in a fanatical and exteme way according to Lekolio. J.E. (2000) consisted of hoodlums, people who were highly prejudiced, people who were provoked, people who were antagonistic, people who helped and defended one another, provocators who spread religious and ethnic issues, and followers of extreme religious and ethnic convictions. Alternative Solutions Although many aspects of life constituted the cause and effect of the social conflict in the Moluccas, the greatest potential for conflict was to be found in the primordial ties that were ethnic, racial, religious, regional and lingual in nature and that were critical for the onset of disintegration. As a matter fact, not all the muslim-christian polupation and not all the national population, especially the Moluccas, Bugis, Buton, Makasar, Padang and other newcomers had the desire for conflict. Actually, several mass media, certain groups and even individuals who exaggerated the conflict were backed up by political interests. They tried to make it appear as if the whole muslim-christian population and the various ethnic groups in the Moluccas were involved in the conflict. In actual fact, the silent majority that constituted more than 75% were yearning for the restoration of a natural, peaceful and nonviolent kind of life that they used to lead. Therefore, efforts to resolve the conflict need to be immediately made trough strategic and comprehensive measures with, reconciliation as their central theme, both vertically and horizontally. Every effort to set up Coalitions for Peace in the Moluccas must be supported by culture of peace development, social and political lobbying, networking widening, briefing media and counter action opposition, and of course strongly supported nationwide. Every decision maker at all levels, national, regional, local as well as at the basic social level must refer to the confirmation of human rights and the confirmation of justice in establishing democratic rules of the game, law enforcement and constitution, and the edifying of religious morals and ethics and also noble cultural values. Besides, dialogue efforts and formation of an attitude of tolerance in the daily life must be given due attention. In that way, the community will be better able to foster peace and to respect and appreciate differences. Eventually, there will evolve a dynamically reformed community that is free of violence and a proportional and critical multi-cultural life that will be characterised by appreciation and acceptance of diversity as a process to establish national integrity, identity and continuity. To avoid centralised intervention, each and every law and regulation that enables the government tot make excessive intervention should be reconsidered and revised, especially those that concern the appointment of heads of regions and various policies made by the local government. Furthermore, land law reformation must be able to anticipate the emergence of conflicts due to injustice, ambiguity and overlap in the laws and regulations concerning land. Action Plans Steps must be conceptually, systematically and flexibly compiled in conformity with the dynamics of conflict resolution in the form of conflict prevention, conflict regulation, conflict resolution & dispute adjudication. The key to these steps lies in the full involvement of the Moluccan community itself. This means that the involvement of the Moluccan community is not merely a right, but also the key to success in short-term as well as long-term conflict resolution. External parties are merely to facilitate and to assist when needed by the Moluccan community. Conflict prevention involves various activities of early warning, conflict anticipation & early response, training for communities, participants in conflict resolution processes, and intermediaries, building relationships among potentially conflicting groups, long-term public education on multicultural cooperation, building of future scenarios. Forums to face and address issues before they escalate, prevention of abuse of power, meeting human needs & protecting rights, promotion of justice & rule of law. Conflict regulation involves various activities of nonviolent community peacekeeping, government policing, development of military/police rules of engagement, military peacekeeping, provision of observations, establishment of safety zones, protection of vulnerable populations. Conflict resolution involves various activities of facilitation or mediation procedures, cooperative advocacy assistance, policy dialogues, resource development assistance, reconciliation & relationship healing assistance, accord implementation assistance, monitoring assistance. Dispute adjudication involves various activities of fact-finding, arbitration, administrative decision-making, judicial decision-making, compensation and restitution. Each and every of the steps mentioned above should be flexibly and dynamically taken in line with the needs. And of course strong national support, and even international support, will have its own significance in the success of conflict resolution that is civilised and longstanding. c. Background of the conflict By Margratha Hendriks-Ririmase, Indonesian Council of Churches. Mrs Hendriks-Ririmase began her intervention by stating that the Indonesian state had failed in its attempt to stop the violence in the Moluccas. It had sent troops, but both TNI as well as Polri were accused by the local communities of being biased and siding with either the muslims or the christians. These accusations apparently are not completely unfounded, since the conflict in the Moluccas doesn't seem to be an ordinary horizontal conflict, but one that is well planned and organised by powerful groups of people. The pattern that precedes it, is also seen elsewhere in the archipel: first there are rumours about tensions escalating into conflict, followed by the appearance of new faces in the local communities; then a small accident occurs, especially between members belonging to different communities which finally escalates into a mass outbreak of violence. Since this pattern also occurs elsewhere, it may be concluded that forces from outside are involved. Nevertheless, Mrs Hendriks-Ririmase also emphasises that previous to the outbreak of the conflict Moluccan society was already rife with internal tensions and rivalries. The muslims felt that from the colonial era until early independence the christians had been privileged; and the christians believed that, during the New Order, they had less career opportunities within the bureaucracy than the muslims. These already existing tensions within Moluccan society were then used by external forces to provoke hatred and violence between the two religious communities. Mrs Hendriks-Ririmase remarked that New Order personnel in particular are well-known to be very good at this. According to Mrs Hendriks-Ririmase, however, certain religious practices also contributed to the outbreak of violence. In this respect she referred to the fact that both religions, at one time or another, have claimed to own the Truth and should therefore be acknowledged as the One True Religion and that both sometimes are overactive in the field of conversion or dakwah. These practices finally led to exclusivist attitudes of one religious community towards the other. The use of religion in this way has also destroyed the moluccan people's regard for their own cultural values, such as the concept of pela gandong which, contrary to religion, stresses the Brother- and Sisterhood of all the Moluccan people. Another factor which contributed to the destruction of local culture was the policy implememted by Jakarta of forced uniformity of village administration. This eventually led to the marginalisation of traditional village administation and its dignitaries. These traditional administrators, however, still enjoy a lot of respect and could therefore play a significant role in the reconciliation process. Mrs Hendriks-Ririmase then commented on the current situation in the Moluccas. She said that, with the arrival of Laskar Jihad and the Forum Kedaulatan Maluku (FKM), things had become more complicated. She went on to state that, if FKM stood for humanistic values, it would be supported by ICC. However, if it stood for seperatism, then ICC would withdraw its support, since the latter is of the opinion that the problem should be primarily tackled by the Indonesian government in cooperation with the people. According to Mrs Hendriks Ririmase, ICC insists on the creation of a New Indonesia based on the Rule of Law, where nobody will be discriminated. In this regard she asked the EU to support the reconciliation process in the Moluccas. d. Four Necessary Pillars of Democracy By Tamrin Tomagola, advisor to the Indonesian government* * The presentation of the views of Mr Tamrin Tomagola as they were presented in Brussels were combined with the report of other presentations by him as they were summarized by Mr Ries de Weerd. General starting points First of all Tomagola wanted to make clear his general starting points. In the first place, the 'state' is not an end in itself, but a resource to strive for the public interest. If the 'state' for that matter does not function effectively any more, it has to be changed. Unitary State, federation, confederation and suchlike forms do not matter, as long as that design is instrumental for the benefit of 'public interest'. In the second place, the state as a concept is a modern one, that only arose in the 17th century. The concept of a 'nation state' dates from an even later period. Thirdly, the foundation of the Indonesian state was led by western ideas of the national unitary state, because, at that time, we thought we would serve the public interest to its best. In his further explanation he concentrated on three questions: 1) Why decentralisation and autonomy? Indonesia is characterised by a very large diversity: - If we look at the flora and fauna (Dutch researchers already did), Indonesia consists of two distinguishable parts. - In the matter of economic diversity, with intensive cultivation, rice, as trademark, a division can be made between Java and 'outside Java'. - The socio-cultural diversity - The political context as shown through history. Forms of political unity in the archipelago (only) existed in the 9th century in the Sriwijaya realm, the Mojopahit realm in the 14th century, the Moluccas in the 15th century when the Sultanate of Ternate wanted to establish his power in the North and Central Moluccan archipelago during the colonisation period, especially in the 19th century and the first decades of the 20th century. Not any further! The archipelago once has the character of a loose 'maritime community' (NOT 'Commonwealth'). The Republic of Indonesia, which was proclaimed in 1945, was a national unitary state. There are three forms of nationalism: state nationalism, ethnic/religious nationalism and the modern nationalism of the citizenship. The Republic of 1945 was based on state nationalism. Nevertheless, if we look at the undercurrent and the present day, nationalism based on the religious sentiment is stronger than the ethnic sentiment, and the ethnic sentiment is stronger than state nationalism. 2) Why uniform introduction in such different situations in Indonesia? Socio-cultural diversity. In the Indonesian archipelago there live 210 million people from 636 ethnic groups ( from which 300 at West Papua). There are nine dominant ethnic groups (sukus): Aceh, Batak, Melayu, Minangkabau, Sunda, Jawa, Madura, Bali, Bugis (West and Central Indonesia). Not every 'suku' has its own province, mostly they are scattered about several provinces. East Indonesia is a collection of very small groups (Tomagola used the word 'bread crumbs'). In one district or regional area ten or twenty ethnic groups could be found. In case Indonesia may collapse, huge 'pieces' (of the bread) will come into being in West and Central Indonesia, while East Indonesia would crumble. East Indonesia must not be separated from Indonesian territory. The division of the Moluccas in two provinces (North Maluku and Maluku) already caused a lot of fighting. A federation would offer more perspective than the current unitary state with the intended autonomy laws. 3) What do the current autonomy laws mean in practice? The autonomy laws UUD 22/99 (regional government) and 25/99 (financial relations between the central government and the regions) are introduced from Jakarta. Of course at this it is about the division of the resources. Important is the equal division based on decentralisation of (democratic) rule. The autonomy concept allows the regional areas the administration of 'their own household' with the exception of the foreign policy, defense, monetary and fiscal affairs, and religious affairs (to keep 'state' and 'religion' separate). (It is remarkable that he did not mention 'justice', which remains in accordance with UUD 22/99 a responsibility of the central government. That could be connected with the current political discussion in the Indonesian People's congress and the Parliament about whether or not introducing the 'sjaria' - the islamic legislation- in orthodox islamic areas such as in December 2000 in Aceh, and what is claimed by the Laskar Jihad in North Maluku after the expulsion of most of the christians). In case there would only be rumour of administrative decentralisation, this also means decentralisation of the corruption. Many regional 'little Suhartos' will be born then. An important condition for the success of the autonomy is, that the people get back their sovereignty within the framework of democratisation. Finally, according to Tomagola, four control institutions ('pillars of democracy') must be available at regional and local level: 1) a strong attendance of non-governmental organisations 2) free local press 3) local political parties with large independence of big national parties (80% of the members of parliament descend from the Orde Baru period) 4) free, independent university research. 3. Discussions Introduction At the discussions at the Round Table Meeting in the European Parliament there were a number of issues which received special attention. This report has been structured on the four main issues that were discussed. It will be concluded by a summary of the main conclusions that can be derived from these discussions. A list of participants has been added to it as an annex. a. Baku Bae and the others All the members of the Moluccan delegation confirmed the importance of the role of Baku Bae in the reconciliation process. Some qualifications however were made. Mr Ignas Kleden praised the initiative and the approach of Baku Bae, but also said that because of the magnitude of the problem not one organisation could deal with it single-handedly. He therefore suggested that the international community should also support other organisations that are working for peace in the Moluccas. Mr Tamrin Tomagola recommended that the approach taken by Baku Bae of explicitly involving the local people in the reconciliation process, i.e. their grassroots approach, should not only be supported on Ambon, but also in the other parts of the Moluccas. He therefore suggested to stop using Ambon as a password for the whole of the Moluccas. Mr Ignatius Ismartono wanted to emphasise that the Church although it wants to play a role in resolving the conflict, sees itself as an outsider therefore wants to remain neutral. In practice this means that the Church will only support humanitarian aid programs which are initiated by the local communities, i.e. it should take a bottom-up approach. Father Agus Ulaihayanan regretted that the international community only seemed to focus on Ambon City and its surroundings, because the Moluccas comprise more than only Ambon Island. He therefore differentiated between four main areas, each with their own specific problems: 1) Ambon City and Island; where the situation is comparatively bad. 2) Central Moluccas (Ceram, Buru etc.); where the massive flow of refugees forms the main problem. 3) Northern Moluccas; where the situation is relatively better, although muslims and christian still aren't living together. 4) Southern Moluccas; where muslims and christians still seem able to live together. Concluding, Father Agus strongly suggested that international organisations, such as UNDP, UNCHR etc. widen their focus to include also the other parts of the Moluccas. b. Self- reliance and traditional leadership The core of the message as it was expressed in different wordings and from different perspectives can be described as the firm believe of all the members of the Moluccan delegation that the people should put their trust in their own capacities. Mr Ignas Kleden stressed that the Baku Bae initiative proved that peace recovery in the Moluccas is possible, but that a major problem was the people's lack of faith in it. He therefore said that it was not only important to convince the Moluccan people of the desirability of peace recovery, but also of its viability. One way to achieve this is to promote the strengthening of local culture and values as a means of conflict resolution. Mr Ricky Palyama stated that the efforts made by Baku Bae are based on the conviction of the people of the grass roots that the conflict should come to an end, which can be concluded from the fact that 1½ % of the christian people are pro-violence and only 1% of the muslims. Only those are in favour of continuation of the conflict who will gain economic advantage. Mr Yusuf Ely said that the efforts of the Indonesian government to end the conflict should not be top-down, but should include the local people in general and the traditional leaders in particular. The latter still enjoy a lot of authority, so that leaving them out of the reconciliation process would portend little good for the Moluccan society as a whole. Mr John Tituley said that, since the conflict aparently cannot be solved through the formal structures an alternative approach has to be taken into consideration. In this context he referred to the strategy of using traditional leaders for the socialisation of the concept of peaceful conflict resolution by the local communities, which currently is succesfully applied by Baku Bae. He therefore concluded that, since the traditional system seems to meet the needs of the local community better, more adat-leaders should be convinced to join the Baku Bae or similar initiatives. Mr Mahfud Nukuhehe who himself is Bapak Raja (traditional village head) of Seith and as such, is responsible for 61.088 people, noticed that many other traditional leaders at the meetings that were organised in Bali and Yogyakarta seemed quite certain that in time they would succeed, since traditional leaders still carry a lot of authority. He mentioned as an example of this approach the Road Show. This took him and the other traditional leaders from mosque to church and visa versa, so that they could appeal to both religious communities to end the conflict. Mrs Theresia Maitimu, who is the Ibu Raja (village head) and as such is responsible for 150,000 inhabitants said that most of them are christians however 35,000 of them are internally displaced persons (IDP's) and only 15,000 of them are original inhabitants. She referred to the important role that is played by the local traditional leaders in the socialisation of the two so called Zone Damai or Neutral Zones on Ambon Island. The creation of the Zone Damai in the Namia area involved the establishment of a joint christian-muslim security post. Apparently the people in this area didn't consider this initiative to be sufficient. They not only wanted a joint security post but also deemed other activities neccessary in order to stop the violence. In finding a solution by the establishment of an intercommunal planning office and an intercommunal health education center. There were talks with the military head of the civil emergency and several other prominent community members who afterwards promised their support for the Baku Bae reconciliation program. It is hoped that in this way people who have been diplaced can finally go back home and rebuild their houses. c. Who caused the conflict? Several speakers discussed at length the question of who are to be held responsible for the conflict. Mr Yusuf Ely, began his intervention by stating that he himself was a victim from the violence in the Moluccas: his house had been bombed on 22 December 2000. He decided, however, that he, as a prominent Muslim-leader, should stay and join Baku Bae in order to help them in their efforts to end the conflict in a peaceful way. According to Mr Yusuf Ely the conflict has not been instigated by the Moluccan people themselves, since this would go against the age old customs of the pela gandong which doesn't discriminate against either Muslims or Christians. He therefore concludes that the conflict is neither a religious nor a native one. It cannot be denied, however, that the conflict already has cost about 9000 lives. Still, according to Mr Yusuf Ely, the majority of the muslims do not believe that the christians are to blame, but the military and police. Apparently the latter lost a lot when the New Order fell and now they want to "make a comeback' by destabilising the Wahid-government. Further proof for this story is that 99% of the victims have apparently been killed by military weapons. Turning to the issue of the Laskar Jihad, Mr Yusuf Ely then stated that he, as the leader of the Al Fatah Mosque, could honestly say that the Muslim community never invited the Laskar Jihad to come to the Moluccas. With regard to the RMS, he emphasised that it does not represent the majority of the Christians and that, should there be an intervention from its side, the Muslims would fight to the death, since they do not want to separate from the Republic of Indonesia. Mr Manuputy said that both religious communities are at a loss as to who designed the conflict and for what reasons. They are convinced, however, that it has been provoked primarily by forces from outside. However, what aggravates the problem is that even the government does not seem to know what the main cause of the conflict is and therefore is also not capable of ending it. In March Muslim and Christian representatives of Baku Bae met to discuss the soundness of the decision to declare a state of civil emergenccy in the Moluccas. They decided to appeal to the Chief-Prosecutor, Mr Marzuki Darusman, and the then Minister of Justice, Mr Yusril Mahendra. However both officials didn't comply when, later this year, the parliamentary special committee on the Moluccas was dissolved, the representatives of Baku Bae had a meeting with the Speaker of the House, Mr Akbar Tanjung, but he claimed not to know why it had been dissolved. When they subsequently discussed the matter with representatives of Komnasham, it became clear that the issue was politically too sensitive. Mr Ignatius Ismartono said that the Catholic Church is also in the dark as to what the main cause of the conflict is. Since it does not consider itself capable of investigating the matter properly, the Church takes a moderate position on this issue. This means that it doesn't believe the conflict to be a religious one, but shares the commonly held belief that the conflict has been provoked by external forces. However, it takes no official position on their identity. Having said that, it also cannot be denied that there are some striking similarities with incidents in other parts of Indonesia, which are all characterised by having far-reaching consequences in a short span of time. The other related subject was the question of so-called forced conversions to the Islam. Mr John Titulay said that it was mandatory that this matter be clarified as soon as possible. Mr Tamrin Tomagola wanted to stress that forced christianisation did take place in the North Moluccas. Several people have testified on this in Jakarta. d. International interference In general the Moluccan participants showed a reservation with regard to international interference. Although they were unanimous in rejecting military intervention. Their opinions varied with regard to other forms of outside interference. Mr Ricky Palyama stated that negative influence from outside, such as from Laskar Jihad and F.K.N. should be eradicated, since it will deliver no contribution whatsoever to the economic development and independence of the Moluccas. People have to be convinced that they should not take part in violence and should return to their economic activities. Any outside interference can only complicate matters, since a solution to the problem can only be found from inside by the Muluccan people themselves. Mr Yusuf Ely made some recommandations to the EU and the government of Indonesia. He made the following suggestions: 1) To send or to support the formation of a special fact-finding team to investigate the root of the conflict in the Moluccas (EU). 2) To vote against sending an international peacekeeping force, since the Moluccan people themselves have to find a solution to the conflict (EU). 3) To support the rebuilding process in general by facilitating the reconciliation efforts made by the Moluccan people themselves (EU). 4) To support the Baku Bae reconciliation program (EU). Mr Mahfud Nukuhehe made the same recommandations. Mr Tamrin Tomagola expressed his doubts on the exact form of support that the international community should give to Indonesia. A major problem in this respect is that the Indonesian government is deeply divided; as a consequence of which it only has weak control over the military. He therefore concluded that the international community should: a) at least maintain pressure on the Wahid government to do something about the situation, and b) only facilitate efforts of the Indonesian government to empower the local judiciary system and to rebuild the local police force. Mr Jack Manuputy noticed that in the current situation the strengthening of both the state as well as civil society was necessary. Therefore he proposed that the monitoring of human rights violations should be handled by the military and civilian head of the civil emergency as well as the NGO's and that the international community support this process. Manuputy, however, understood that the international community could only negotiate with the government of Indonesia, but he wanted to stress that, at the same time, thousands of people were being killed. In this regard Manuputy judged the position of the Moluccan people to be unfair. He therefore also insisted that affirmative action be taken. To conclude his intervention, he recommended the international community to support the Baku Bae reconciliation program which is not only strengthening civil society by virtue of its grassroots approach, but is also taking affitmative action to end the conflict by attempting to exclude the negative influences of external forces. e. Summarising The various points that were raised by the Moluccan and other Indonesian speakers were adequately summarised by Hanja Maij-Weggen: 1) The problems in the Moluccas can only be solved by their own community and by using a grassroots approach; 2) Outside support for the reconcilication process should only be facilitating. At the same time by giving this synopsis she voiced the general feeling of the members of the European Parliament that participated at this meeting. From the various statements that were made by the Indonesian participants and from the reactions of the European Parliamentarians the following conclusions can be derived: 1) Reconciliation initiatives, in particular the Baku Bae initiatives, but also other initiatives that work from the same principles need to be supported. Since military intervention is completely out of the question peace in the Moluccas is only possible when the local community is committed to end the conflict. Therefore the international community can only assist in creating the necessary conditions for the reconciliation process to take place. 'I will recommend to the Commission that these initiatives like that of Baku Bae should be supported.' (Max van den Berg). 2) It is of paramount importance for the reconciliation process not to allow impunity to grow rampant in the Moluccas, but to bring all those responsible for gross violations of human rights to court. This refers not only to the military and the police, but also to the Laskar Jihad, to both christians as well as muslims, who insited their people to violence (Tamrin Tomagola). The formation of a team to investigate the main causes of the conflict is to be recommended (Jan Kees Wiebenga). The question in how far international involvement would be desirable or not needs careful consideration. It would be worthwhile to find inspiration from the experiences of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa (Hanja Maij-Weggen) 3) The humanitarian aid programs which are initiated by the communities themselves, i.e. bottom-up, need special support (Ignatius Ismartono). In the international support programs that are needed for the rebuilding and restructuring, special attention should be paid to education. Because of the violence and destruction, there are now about 7,000 students who cannot visit their universities anymore. They are about to become a lost generation. If this happens, it would mean a potential source of future conflict. The EU should supply scolarschips to Moluccan students (Yusuf Ely). Back To Coalitions For Peace In The Moluccas