Ambon: Unreported Facts (in English)

Ambon: Unreported Facts

Prepared by Kie-Eng Go, Texas, USA

The war in Ambon has created a lot of controversy, especially when information reported by the Indonesian media seems not to be very specific or detailed when compared with information released by the informal media based on eyewitness accounts on location. The conflicting information has certainly sharpened the sentiments between the religious groups in Indonesia, namely the Muslims and the Christians. Further, an objective assessment is still very much needed, for direct involvement from the central government and military commanders in Jakarta seems to be very slow, as it has historically been in other previous incidents.

What we all need to realize about the incorrect information--especially that generated and propagated on purpose--and the slowness of the government and military response is that it will only mean more casualties in Ambon, and even in other areas. Some analysts have expressed strongly that this kind of annoyance may have significant impact on the road to the upcoming election. Even though there has been no official and specific invitation from the Indonesian government to allow international election observers, most Indonesians hope that the election can be conducted cleanly and fairly, especially after 32 years of being oppressed by an authoritarian regime.

What follows is a summary of the report compiled by the Sala-Waku Fact Finding Team in Ambon. The original report is in Indonesian--Hasil Investigasi Serie 2--and can be accessed at the following location: http://www.fica.org . The site contains a lot of other information and photos regarding persecution against Indonesian Christians in Indonesia and other human rights abuses. Some of the photos are very graphic, and warning is advisable.

During the big incident in Ambon on Jan 15-18, 1999, there seemed to be systematic and well-plotted attacks against Christian villages in the area. The attackers were found to have come from the following villages: Hitu, Mamala, Morela, Wakal, and possibly from Dusun Sapuri and Dusun Hulung as well. Those places are known as Muslim-populated areas. Rumors broke out that Christians were attacking the Alfatah mosque in Ambon. This rumor was used to justify the "long march" of these attackers and the passive or even non-involvement of the military personnel in the area. And yet the fact the mosque was not attacked, a Christian leader was able to control the crowd. Yet at the same time, the attackers had been preparing for the attack since November 1998, as some eyewitnesses indicated.

On January 19, after the attacks on Telaga Kodok and Benteng Karang, the attackers from the four aforementioned Muslim villages continued on to the other Christian villages mentioned above, while some of the attackers stayed behind to make sure that there were no survivors in Telaga Kodok and Benteng Karang.

Hunuth/Durian Patah

At about 10 a.m. on the morning of January 20, 1999, some survivors from Benteng Karang arrived at Hunuth and gave reports about what happened and asked for refuge. Immediately the Hunuth villagers gathered their children and families and put them on a boat and then sailed to the sea to find refuge. Meanwhile, some of the residents of Hunuth went to the military base of the Yon 733 and asked for preventive protection. The KOSTRAD (the Army Strategic Command) replied by telling them that they were on their way to Ambon to help stabilize the situation there, for they all knew that an attack was coming.

At about 12:30 p.m., the attackers arrived at Hunuth and were met by the men of Hunuth. However, the Hunuth defenders immediately realized that they were outnumbered by the attackers and started to seek refuge. One person from Hunuth was killed during the attack, Mrs. R.C. Hoof Mester/Polnaya.

Sometime back in November of 1998, a man from Buton village told a pastor from Hunuth that the Hitu villagers were training their youth in how to make bombs to attack Hunuth.

Waiheru

Knowing trouble might be coming, the Waiheru residents held a meeting with the local community leadership (the chief of the village, the religious leaders, and other community leaders) on January 20, 1999, at about 10:30 a.m. At around 11:00 a.m., while they were in the midst of the meeting, Fredy Siahaya, from Nania village, rushed up on his motorcycle and told them about the attackers from Hitu, Wakal, Mamala, and Morela who were coming to attack them, and that they had already attacked Hunuth and Durian Patah. Immediately the meeting was halted and people rushed to their families and tried to find refuge.

At about 11:15 a.m. the attackers were able to burn the house of Mrs. Maria Mailuhu/Leweherila and also the house of Topi Walaia. An arrow pierced the leg of Domingus Walaia, the son of Topi Walaia, while he was trying to fight the fire. Since Domingus could not escape, the attackers killed him by slicing his throat then and there, and several other stab wounds were found in his body as well.

An eyewitness asked a military person of the Yon 733, "Why didn't you do anything to stop them?" The reply was, "We had reported the situation and asked for instructions. However, the Commander of the Yon 733 had replied saying, 'Let them pass by, they are on their way to Ambon.'"

Negeri Lama and Nania

The attackers came in three groups. At first both the Muslims and the Christians joined forces to protect their village from the attackers. Sergeant Huik from the Yon 733 told the Nania villagers not to worry about the strangers since they were on their way to Ambon. The first group passed by. Although the situation was very tense, nothing really took place. However, the second and third groups were more emotional and they started to throw rocks at houses. Still the Nania villagers didn't respond, simply because they were outnumbered.

Almost reaching the edge of Nania village, the mob saw Mr. Charles Malawau, a retired military person. Upon seeing him, the mob became very angry and started to attack him in front of his house. Mr. Malawau was killed immediately as his throat was sliced, his left arm was almost completely cut off, and his stomach was stabbed several times.

Before entering the next village, Negeri Lama, the attackers were met by angry people from Dusun Air Besar (who are mainly Christians) and people from Buton (who are mainly Muslims). Those people simply wanted to protect themselves from the attackers. Since they could not defend themselves from the people from Dusun Air Besar and Buton, the attackers went back to Nania. That was when they started to burn houses and loot in Nania. The second attack in Nania took place somewhere between 1:15 p.m. and 3:00 p.m. According to eyewitnesses, there were two people from Nania who joined the attackers and started burning buildings, houses and churches: Mr. Cakra, a high school student, and Mr. Jurais, a chairperson of RT-03 Nania. (RT refers to a neighborhood association, an institutionalized neighborhood organization found throughout Indonesia.)

There are at least two varying stories regarding the second attack in Nania:

1. The burning of the Christian houses and churches was done by the people of Nania themselves, particularly the Muslims.
2. The burnings were done by the attackers when the road they were following was blocked by people from Dusun Air Besar and Buton.

When the people from Dusun Air Besar found out that the Christians in Nania were attacked, they became very angry and started to burn the government buildings in Nania and Negeri Lama, as well as houses belonging to the Muslims there. They also tried to burn a mosque in Negeri Lama. However, they only succeeded in vandalizing the mosque.

Special notes:

1. Mr. J. Moniharapon heard a cry for help from Mr. Sumarlan (a chief of Nania village). While he was trying to help Mr. Sumarlan, a group of people attacked him. At least 2 people from Bugis that he knew (Mr. Ronald Imran and Sion) were among the attackers. Mr. Moniharapon survived with several cuts and stabs, including one spear cut into his stomach.
2. Rev. Paul Thysen was hiding from his attackers in the porch of Mr. Baharudin's house. However, the attackers were able to find him, and Rev. Thysen was killed immediately, his throat was sliced and his right arm was cut off, then his body was burned.

Casualties:

Some disturbing patterns emerge:

1. There was the report by a Buton resident regarding the training in Hitu since November, 1998 for the making of bombs, in a preparation for an attack.
2. The attackers seemed to follow some kind of plan or plot. They seemed to be simultaneously mobilized to attack the above villages. They were wearing white bandanas on their heads or white cloth armbands as part of an identification system.
3. The types of weapons, i.e. swords, spears, arrows, and even bombs, are a strong indication that they were prepared beforehand.
4. In villages where there were Christians and Muslims, the attackers seemed to be able to differentiate which houses belonged to the Christians and which ones belonged to the Muslims.
5. The attackers were equipped with trucks as their means to load the looted materials. They were also prepared with a lot of body protective equipment and enough drinks and meals to sustain the attacks.
6. The military personnel, the KOSTRAD of the Yon 733, did not bother to do anything to try to stop the attacks. In some instances the military personnel even helped the attackers by lending some transportation to them. Especially in Waiheru, the military personnel refused to help the people while they were being attacked. The military personnel would only take initiative if they received direction from their Commander, which never occurred during that time.

After the attacks, the people still live in trauma and fear. Some even decided to burn their own houses and move to other places. For the residents of Bugis, Makasar and Buton, a lot of them did decide to go home to their original places.

After approximately 97 riots and incidents in Indonesia in 1998, including about 29 incidents alone during the months from November of 1998 until January of 1999, somehow the government of Indonesia and the military are still lacking the capability to respond to incidents such as the ones above. Habibie, as some media reported, expressed his concern regarding the fate of the Muslims in Ambon upon his receipt of some data about the Ambon incident. Certainly, both the Muslims and the Christians in that area were the victims. And yet at the moment when national integrity and integration is being challenged, the lack of capability to gather more factual data (such as that reported by the Sala-Waku Fact Finding Team) should be a clear indication of the quality of the highest leadership.

Because of his diminishing popularity both internally and internationally, some sources have indicated that there could be a national conspiracy to bring Habibie down even before the election. If this is true, such a change of condition would become very interesting, especially since the country doesn't have a Vice President. According to the Constitution, three ministers would assume temporary leadership, and they are the ministers of Internal Affairs, Foreign Affairs and Defense. June 7, the election date, is not that far off, and yet for a nation that has been in waiting for 32 years, it still seems like a long journey. In the meantime, anger, disappointment, mourning, helplessness, hopelessness have become the cry of many Indonesians, Ambonese are included.