Jakarta – A paramilitary Muslim group which had waged a "holy war" against Christians in the Malukus said it would not leave the eastern islands despite the signing of a pact to end three years of sectarian bloodshed there.
Christian and Muslim leaders from Maluku on Tuesday signed an agreement at Malino to end the violence, which has claimed some 5,000 lives. It stipulates that outside forces should withdraw.
The Laskar Jihad (Jihad Force), which is based on Java island, said its activities in Maluku centre on "humanitarian work" rather than war. "We have no business with the Malino agreement because our mission in Maluku focuses on humanitarian work and every citizen of this country has the right to stay anywhere he wants," the group's spokesman, Ayip Syarifuddin, told AFP Wednesday. In May 2000 Laskar Jihad – with the apparent connivance of security forces – sent thousands of fighters to the islands.
The peace deal calls for an independent inquiry into the activities of Laskar Jihad as well as into two Christian separatist groups, the Front for the Sovereignty of Maluku and the South Maluku Republic (RMS) movement, and a Christian group called Laskar Kristus.
The pact says all unauthorised armed groups should surrender their weapons or be disarmed. "For those outside parties that are sowing unrest in Maluku, they are obligated to leave Maluku." Christians accuse Laskar Jihad of worsening the bloodshed while Muslims blame the Christian separatist movements.
"If the government has a strong and plausible reason for us to leave Maluku, we will gladly do so, but so far we have not done anything illegal in Maluku," Syarifuddin said. "The presence of the RMS is right in front of us yet the authorities are not doing anything to this group," he said, adding that Laskar Jihad banned its members from carrying weapons.
Catholic priest Cornelis Bohm, of the Crisis Center of Ambon diocese, said Christians would demand "strong and decisive actions" to expel Laskar Jihad from Maluku. "Their image as killers and provocateurs of war is so deeply rooted here that no Christian in Maluku will ever believe their claim [to be] a humanitarian non-government organisation," Bohm said.
President Megawati Sukarnoputri welcomed the peace deal, the second negotiated by her ministers in two months. A December agreement ended Muslim-Christian fighting in the Poso region of Central Sulawesi.
Top welfare minister Yusuf Kalla said Jakarta would soon send judges as well as more troops and police to the Malukus. Asked about Laskar Jihad's stance, he said: "I have approached them", but did not elaborate.
Commentators said police and troops must stop taking sides if the peace deal is to work. The International Crisis Group (ICG), in a report last week, said there was little confidence among the local population that government forces would protect them from further attacks because they were seen to have taken sides. "This perception is particularly strong among Muslims, which has made it politically difficult for government officials to act against Laskar Jihad," the report said.
The ICG said continuing sporadic attacks and bombings were not necessarily linked to religious groups. "There are indications that the security forces themselves have an interest in maintaining an atmosphere in which business people and property owners feel vulnerable and are willing to pay for protection."
Asmara Nababan, secretary general of the National Commission on Human Rights, said the agreement was "concrete in terms of support from both sides" but police, troops and officials must act impartially.
The Maluku bloodshed drove more than half a million people from their homes in the former Spice Islands. More than 80 percent of Indonesia's 214 million people are Muslims but in some eastern regions Christians make up about half the population.