[In Indonesia, one strand in the complex hunt for the Bali bombers has taken police to the troubled Maluku islands. Amrozi, one of the confessed conspirators in the Bali terrorist attacks, says he also helped to make bombs that were sent to the eastern island of Ambon in 2000. The admission provides further evidence of the role of outside actors in inflaming sectarian violence in the provinces of Maluku and North Maluku that claimed an estimated 6,000 lives in three years. But, according to the region's Catholic Bishop, a peace accord that was signed in February this year, is working.]

Presenter/Interviewer: Peter Mares

Speakers: Bishop Petrus C. Mandagi from the Diocese of Amboina in eastern Indonesia

Mandagi: We didn't hear any more bomb blasts. And the Christians and Muslims could come together and the reconciliation process is underway.

Mares: For the past eight years, Bishop Mandagi has been in charge of the Catholic Diocese of Amboina, which covers Indonesia's two troubled eastern provinces of Maluku and North Maluku. Catholics make up only about five percent of the two million people of the Maluku or Moluccus Islands, which has allowed them – and Bishop Mandagi – to stand somewhat apart from the years of violence that have engulfed the region's dominant Muslim and Protestant Communities.

Bishop Mandagi says the situation in Maluku has improved greatly since the signing of the so-called Malino agreement in February, when 35 Muslim leaders and 35 Christian leaders pledged to end the conflict and all kinds of violence:

Mandagi: I've seen that the people want peace and both government and people, Christian people and Muslim people made a lot of effort to implement this agreement.

Mares: A key element of the Malino peace agreement was a pledge to uphold the rule of law, and Bishop Mandagi says the recent arrest of fourteen members of the so-called Coker gang has helped to restore peoples' confidence in the police.

Mandagi: The Coker gang consisted of young people mostly, jobless. And people in Moluccas, especially Ambon, were threatend by Coker gang. And especially this Coker gang put bombs in different places in Moluccas, especially in Ambon, including in the Christian area. As you know this Coker gang are Christians, but to me they show that they are not faithful in Christianity.

Mares: Bishop Mandagi says the police and military are now behaving in a much more neutral manner than in the past, when different branches of the security forces took sides in the sectarian conflict. Another positive development is the disbanding of the Muslim militia force, the Laskar Jihad Warriors – a Java-based extremist group that had intervened in the Maluku conflict:

Mandagi: As you know, the coming of Laskar Jihad created problems in Moluccas, not only for Christians but for local Muslims also. The local Muslims told me that their arrival in Moluccas create problems for them. They came as a coloniser for the local Muslims so some moderate Muslims told me that yes they are very happy now that the Laskar Jihad Warriors are out of Ambon.

Mares: Despite the positive trend in the Maluku islands since February, Bishop Mandagi warns that the peace is fragile. There is now some intermingling of communities at shared markets, and at events sponsored by non-government organisations to promote reconciliation. But, Muslims and Christians still keep mainly to their own areas. It's suspected that both sides have hidden stockpiles of weapons in case fighting breaks out once again, and the presence of 145,000 displaced people in and around Ambon means the potential for violence remains high. Bishop Mandagi says local elections to choose the governor of Maluku province could be a flashpoint.

Mandagi: We are anxious or afraid that this election could provoke conflict because the candidates come from Muslim and Protestants and the point is that this election could provoke both, you know. And maybe the government could not be elected and conflict will come up.

Mares: The term of Maluku's current governor was supposed to expire on November 11, but was extended by one month by the central government. Bishop Mandagi has proposed that Jakarta postpone local elections for six months and appoint a neutral caretaker government to organise the polls. It's a suggestion he expects will be taken up. Bishop Mandagi's greatest concern is that the Maluku islands will once again victim to violence, not due to local tensions and conflicts, but as the spill-over effect of political competition at the national level in the lead up to Presidential elections in 2004.

Mandagi: Yes, it's difficult to be confident in Indonesia you know, because politics still control our lives, not law. And you know Indonesia is controlled by central government, by Jakarta, so the situation in our provinces is dependent on Jakarta. Remote control is in Jakarta. If the political group in Jakarta is stable, our country will be calm and Ambon will be calm. I hope that conflict in Maluku will stop because people in Maluku already suffer very much from this conflict.