Jakarta – A flag of the separatist South Maluku Republic (RMS) was Wednesday briefly flown in Ambon the capital of Indonesia's Maluku province before police took it down, a participant and a report said.

The flag was hoisted during a ceremony on the front lawn of the residence of the executive chairman of the Forum for Maluku's Sovereignty (FKM), Alex Manuputty, said Sammy Weileruni, an executive of the organization.

"The ceremony was held as planned and everything went fine. There was no violence, although the flag did not fly for long because the police took it down," Waileruni said.

He said that the flag – with vertical bands of blue, white, green and red – was hoisted along with the Indonesian flag and of the United Nations.

The ceremony was attended by more than 100 FKM supporters and included the reading of the April 25, 1950 proclamation of the South Maluku Republic, said Waileruni. He declined to elaborate further but said that nobody had been arrested nor had any violence marred the ceremony.

The Antara news agency said the flag was raised during a brief absence of Maluku Military Police chief Major General John Maitimu, who had attempted to prevent the flag-raising, citing a government ban.

But when Maitimu left the venue briefly to tell provincial police chief Brigadier General Firman Gani of Manuputty's refusal to cancel the ceremony, the flag was quickly raised. aitumu and his men returned to the site some 10 minutes later and his men lowered the flag without any resistance from those present at the ceremony.

The RMS was banned by the country's first president Sukarno and its followers were allowed to either remain in Indonesia or leave the country for the Netherlands, the former colonial power.

The movement has reappeared in Ambon following the drawn-out religious conflict there and in other islands in the Malukus which have seen intense fighting between Muslims and Christians for more than two years.

Fighting between Christians and Muslims first erupted in Ambon in January of 1999 and spread rapidly to other islands in the Malukus, otherwise known as the Spice Islands.

More than 4,000 people have been killed in the violence and up to half a million of the three million inhabitants have fled their homes for internal refugee camps or to other islands.