Ambon – The governor of Indonesia's troubled Maluku province has said that allies of former President Suharto could be behind the arrival of some 2,200 Muslim jihad warriors in the islands.

"It is a very complicated, very big problem, because national politics is involved," Governor Saleh Latuconsina said in an interview in his office which overlooks the burnt-out shells of buildings torched in a year of Christian-Muslim violence here.

"The Laskar Jihad is connected to some political elite, because they can come to Ambon without anyone stopping them," he said, referring to a warning issued by President Abdurrahman Wahid that the warriors should be prevented from leaving Java island.

"We asked the Ministry of Transport to stop them and the answer was: "It is their human right to come here'," he said, recalling the arrival of 2,200 men – from the reportedly 10,000-strong force – from Java.

"Maybe it is from the people of the status quo... well, Suharto," he said, reflecting a widespread belief in Indonesia that loyalists of the former President were being paid to foment unrest.