The conflict started with a small incident, 19 January 1999, between a minibus Christian driver, a local Ambonese, and a Moslem young man  from a migrant family - who stopped the car and asked for money. The driver refused and chased the Moslem young man who then ran into the village to report that a Christian driver attacked him. The seemingly trivial incident erupted into an unending communal, ethic and religious conflict.

Why Ambon or Moluccas?

Ambon, which seemed to be peaceful and tolerant, had kept the potentials of a great conflict. The migrants, mostly from South Sulawesi (Celebes) and Java of whom the majority were Moslems, became better off economically. While the indigenous Ambonese, mainly Protestants, were left behind. This fact created an economic jealousy. In the meantime the government higher positions were shifting from the Protestant to the Moslem officials. This was also another reason of competition between the Christians face to face with the Moslems. Sometimes because of this competition a Catholic official would be appointed. Another factor, which helped create and easily provoke the conflict, was the legacy of the colonial (Dutch) system of settlement of the inhabitants. In some areas the settlements or villages of the Christians were separated from those of the Moslems. In this way each group has created a ghetto‚ and not so much an integration in daily life. So when the conflict started Moslem villages, whose inhabitants were mainly from other ethic groups, would attacked Christian villages and vice versa.

Ambon was once known as a Christian region with 60% Christians and 40% Moslems. But this has changed since the launching of transmigration program (moving people from other regions such as overpopulated Java to other less populated regions). In these recent years the ratio of the population has reversed: out of total population of Ambon 300.000 people 60% were Moslems and 40% were Christians of which 5% were Catholics, while the population in the whole of the Moluccas archipelago was 2 million. And the fact that this archipelago consists of 1000 islands, and so the inhabitants are spread out, could easily be dragged into a provocation from outsiders.

The conflict became widespread in this archipelago. Not only Ambon that has suffered from this conflict, but also Halmahera in the northern part of the archipelago, where  Christians were very minority and so in the short time they were all wiped out of the region and were forced to move to other regions. The conflict had also hit south-eastern Moluccas such as Tual, Dobo and Tanimbar, which counted a good proportion of Christians.

Who is behind this conflict?

This conflict should also be understood in the wider socio-political context of Indonesia. It is not separated from conflicts in other regions such as Aceh, Irian Jaya, Lombok, Central Sulawesi. There has been a strong belief that the whole scenario was orchestrated and played from Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia, by certain groups, for their personal and political ends. They are called actores intellectuales‚ and provocateurs‚. They do not hesitate to use religion as an instrument of their personal and political ends. So this conflict in the Moluccas is more a conflict which manipulates religion for certain ends rather than an inter-religious conflict.

Since the downfall of Suharto in May 1998 riots and communal violence have increased. The followers or the cronies of Suharto, who are financially powerful, did not like to see him being blamed for the collapse of the country and being tried in court, which would also mean that they might end in the same fate. They wanted to maintain the status-quo of which they have profited politically and economically. They wanted to see a country destabilized and the present government discredited. They were anxious to slow down reforms and apparently to prevent recriminations against those involved in political and human-rights abuses over the past three decades.

Also, the military is divided between the nationalists/reformists who are concern with the unity of the whole country and those who want to maintain a status quo and are not content with the reduction of their socio-political function. Until the rule of Suharto the military exercised powerfully what is called Fdual function:  military and socio-political.  There are also those who support the Moslem groups. It did not make any sense that the military was incapable to prevent thousands of Laskar Jihad (Holy War troops) from Java to reach the Moluccan Islands, although the president had ordered to block their departure.

There are also groups of fundamentalist and radical Moslems. They wanted Indonesia, which counts the largest Moslem population in the world (87 % of the total population of Indonesia 220 million people) but is not an official Moslem country, to become an Islam Republic. They use this conflict situation to reinforce their aspiration to make Indonesia an official Moslem country. They do not like President Wahid, who is a man of dialogue and tolerance and who does not support their cause. The unbalanced reports in the Moslem media, which have helped provoke a spirit of Jihad (Holy War) to defend their Moslem brethren, who according to these media were being exterminated by the Christians. After being trained in Java around 8000 Jihad troops arrived in Ambon and Halmahera. Their arrival in the last two months has worsened the situation, which once was already calm. They were also equipped with standard and automatic weapons. It became clear that the motivation was to cleanse the Christians in the Moluccas, and in the long run to Islamise the whole Indonesia.

"Analysts trying to make sense of the Moluccan violence, which has claimed more than 3,000 lives in the past 18 months, believe it represents a confluence of interests. Those range from disaffected retired and serving military officers trying to stir the political pot in far-off Jakarta, to well-funded Muslim extremists seeking to capitalize on a shift in the demographic balance of a region that once had a clear Christian majority in an otherwise overwhelmingly Islamic nation."(Far Eastern Economic Review, Hongkong, ed. 6 July 2000).

In an urgent appeal of 22 June 2000 the Crisis Centre of the diocese of Amboina reported that "What is happening in the Moluccas now cannot possibly be called riots‚ or violence‚ or bloody conflict‚ or even war‚: this is an organized cold-blooded murdering of innocent people, conceded by the Moslems themselves by means of the loudspeakers of their mosques which call for annihilating all Christian infidels‚. The violence can no longer be looked on as a conflict, but a straightforward endeavour to clear the Moluccas from everything that is Christian."Christians were already wiped out from some areas in the northern Moluccas such as Ternate, Tidore, Morotai, Obi, Bacan, Sula. Ambon is still a battle-field, it even has become a killing-field.

This prolonged conflict has developed into sectarian clashes between Muslims (white group‚) and Christians (red group‚) and has claimed more than 3,000 lives and unaccounted material losses such as houses, churches and mosques, etc since it first broke out in mid-January 1999. Even the state university of Pattimura, a neutral institution, has been destroyed in recent riots.

The present situation in the Moluccas

The situation has not improved, even gotten worse, fighting between the Moslems and Christians continues, although the civil state of emergency was declared and imposed since 27 June 2000. Under the state of civil emergency, the local governor is empowered to take wide measures to stem the violence, including ordering the military to make sweeping raids, ban meetings and put areas off limits to the public. A curfew has been set from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. and the emergency status also prohibits a gathering of more than 10 people without a clear reason. The governor as the civil emergency ruler in Ambon, Saleh Latuconsina, declared on Saturday 8 July a limited isolation of the territory to prevent arms and ammunition smuggling. With the limited seclusion, the authorities are authorized to stop and search all vehicles and ships carrying people or goods that could disturb security and peace in the province. Despite all these efforts to curb the situation the bombings, shootings and killings continue. Both warring groups were equipped with automatic guns.

The government and the military were incapable to control the situation. The order of President Wahid to the security forces to curb the situation was not operationally translated in the field. Certain military and police personnel even showed partiality and sided with the warring parties. The presence of about 10 thousands of military personnel from other regions, who were supposedly to restore peace and order, did not help. The situation remains out of hand.

The military commander in chief in Jakarta is preparing to send more troops. But as the Catholic Crisis Centre in Ambon said in their appeal, 7 July 2000: "We learn about the sending in of several battalions of military to the Moluccas. However, it is not the number of military that will save the trapped christians but their quality and appropriate  strategy of positioning them on the right places and their determination to defend the defenseless. The Christians definitely are in extreme want of any aid from any one who cares and is willing to save our lives."