Lindsay Murdoch, Ambon – Hundreds of Christians, including children and pregnant women, have been forcibly circumcised as part of a campaign by extremists to spread Islam through Indonesia's war-ravaged Maluku Islands. Victims have told The Age of multiple cuttings with the same knives and razors that left many with infections.
Church and other groups in Ambon, the biggest city in the islands, have gathered evidence that 3928 villagers on at least six islands were forced to convert to Islam under threat of death, torture or destruction of their homes. They believe that local Muslim clerics, possibly under duress from extremists, circumcised almost all the converts. Moderate Muslim leaders have condemned the forced conversions and circumcisions, saying they are contrary to Islamic teachings.
The Muslim Governor of Maluku, Saleh Latuconsina, last week led an investigation team to the island of Kesui, 420 kilometres south-east of Ambon, after receiving an official report in late December confirming that villagers there were converted to Islam against their will and circumcised.
Several hundred Christians on the island are expected to be taken by Indonesian navy ship to refugee camps on Tual, a nearby island.
A group of 172 Christians from Kesui, who have already been evacuated to Ambon, tell horrific stories of forced circumcisions carried out by local Muslims who they say were pressured by zealots from two other islands, Geser and Gorong.
Kostantinus Idi, 22, said he chanted prayers to convert to Islam as Muslims brandishing machetes threatened to kill him and his family. "I was scared. They could do anything to me if I did not do what they wanted," he said.
Mr Idi said that after being given a Muslim cap, prayer mat and sarong and told to adopt a new Islamic name, he tried to avoid circumcision by running to a relative's house. But three Muslim men came to the house where nine other Christian men were also hiding.
"I could not escape," he said. "One of them held up my foreskin between pieces of wood while another cut me with a razor ... the third man held my head back, ready to pour water down my throat if I screamed. But I couldn't help but scream and he poured the water. I kept screaming aloud and vomited. I couldn't stand the pain."
Mr Idi said that while he was still bleeding profusely, one of the clerics urinated on his wound, saying it would stop infection. "All of the men at the house were cut using the same razor," he said. "That night they circumcised about 60 men. I was bleeding all over and had nothing to cover my wound. I was told to take a bath but it kept bleeding until the next day. I could not imagine any greater pain."
Christina Sagat, 32, said her mother, who is in her 70s, teenagers, children and her eight-months-pregnant niece were among people from her village on Kesui who were circumcised. Trembling and fighting back tears, Ms Sagat said circumcision was not customary among local Muslim women. "I don't understand these people ... they insisted on us being circumcised," she said.
The Reverend Sammy Titaley, head of the Protestant church in Maluku, said the circumcisions were considered worse than death in Ambonese culture.
"Going back centuries we have a tradition of death," he said. "Tradition had it that if you married, you had to bring a head on a stick to the bride's family to show that you were able to protect her," Mr Titaley said.
"But we have never before seen anything like forced circumcisions in these islands." Mr Titaley said the law should be enforced and those responsible sent to jail.
Moderate Muslim leaders in Ambon have distanced themselves from the conversions and circumcisions. They deny any campaign to force Islam on Christians in the islands, where a two-year religious war has left up to 8000 people dead and 500,000 homeless.
Malik Selang, executive secretary of the Maluku chapter of the Indonesian Muslim Board, denied Muslims were responsible for forced conversions or circumcisions.
"Kesui island was Muslim dominated until Christian missionaries came to the area," he said. "The Christians and Muslims used to live in harmony there but some Christians from Ambon went there and created rumors ... they provoked both sides into conflict," he said.
Mr Selang said the refugees who came to Ambon from Kesui originally told a governor's investigation team that they were not forced to change their religion. "Now they are saying different things," he said. "It is the right of anyone to choose whatever religion they like."
Mr Selang said Islamic teaching prohibited the forced conversion of someone from another religion to Islam. "It is against the Koran and against the teachings of the Prophet."
Speaking in Ambon, Austrian-born Catholic priest Joseph Haas said threats and attacks by Muslim fanatics last year forced him to flee Bula, a once Christian village on Seram, the so-called "Mother" island of Maluku.
But he said when he went back to his looted and badly damaged church in the village recently, local Muslims pleaded with him to stay. "I had to tell them, 'Look, I don't have any Christian worshippers here any more ... they have all fled'," he said.
Father Haas said many Muslims were also victims, including the clerics. "From what I hear, they cannot refuse to do the circumcisions," he said. "They are sincere and believe deeply in their religion. But others behind them are forcing them."
Father Haas, who has worked in Indonesia for almost 40 years, said he could not think of a worse thing to happen to the villagers. "If something happens to their body they believe they have become Muslim," he said. "But deep in their hearts there will always be something against that conviction."
Church officials say that the entire eastern half of Seram, the largest island in Maluku, is now entirely Islamic. Protestants and Catholics cannot enter villages there for fear of attack.
The Board of Lawyers for Ambon Churches says it has gathered information about the forced conversion of about 1500 people on Buru, a remote island near Ceram where former president Suharto sent political prisoners in the 1960s.
Maluku police chief Brigadier-General Firman Gani told The Age that he understood Christians on Kesui "were in some kind of condition in which they could not freely choose their religion".
"The police will respond," he said. "We will investigate. We are part of the Governor's team going there." But General Gani said it was a sensitive issue. "We must not create problems by solving one problem," he said. "We will investigate and if there is strong evidence of physical threats we will prosecute the perpetrators."
Governor Latuconsina, who refused to be interviewed by The Age, is believed to have been shocked when he read a report on Kesui dated December 19. The report, marked confidential, detailed how Christians on the island have been forced to change their religion after threats of murder, house burnings and intimidation.
The report, a copy of which has been obtained by The Age, confirmed that Christians who had "surrendered because they could not stand it any more" had been circumcised after being taken to a mosque.