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EU observers allowed in Malukus in 3 months: Wahid

Source
Agence France Presse - July 21, 2000

Jakarta – European observers will be allowed to travel to the strife-torn Maluku islands in three months' time, Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid said in interview Friday.

Wahid told the BBC that despite previous calls for non-interference in the country's internal affairs he was not opposed to EU observers. But he said the current violence in the islands made their presence too dangerous. "After three months they can come. We are not opposed to their coming but ... we have to think about their safety," he said.

A fresh wave of violence in the Maluku archipelago in the past month and the documented involvement of Indonesian army troops in the fighting has led to rising calls for the deployment of United Nations peacekeepers.

But the Indonesian government has repeatedly indicated the country will not seek foreign military assistance to help restore security. In the interview Wahid reiterated the government's objections to UN peacekeepers, saying "this is our country," and he rejected comparisons to the UN operation in East Timor.

Violence between Christians and Muslims in the Malukus, which has claimed more than 4,000 lives and created more than half a million refugees in the past 18 months, would soon be brought under control, Wahid said.

The Indonesian president rejected accusations from critics both at home and abroad that the government had not done enough to halt the religious strife. In particular, his government has been widely condemned by diplomats and church leaders for allowing nearly 3,000 volunteers of the militant Indonesian Muslim Laskar Jihad force to travel to the Malukus to wage a jihad or "holy war" against the Christians despite earlier pledges to prevent them from going.

Wahid also admitted he was in negotiations with unnamed individuals responsible for causing unrest in the strife-torn islands. "I met with the so called militants and reached an agreement with them that they will not do any more."

However he refused to name the specific individuals, saying he was still in talks with them, but acknowledged they were criminals and would be prosecuted if there was enough evidence. "Of course the law has to take its course ... they will be taken to the courts if I feel we have enough legal evidence but before that we had better shut up our mouth."

Wahid said events in the Malukus were being stirred up by certain members of the security forces who sought "to preserve the status quo," and he stressed his commitment to see them purged from the ranks. "We will take out those people from the Malukus and give them other jobs not in the military; but we cannot just put them in prison because we don't have enough evidence."

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