Chris McCall, Jakarta – Grassroots leaders of Indonesia's devastated Maluku Islands left a conference yesterday with a provisional plan to end two years of civil war.

Christians and Muslims greeted the plan with cautious optimism, anxious to end the tit-for-tat violence that has killed thousands on both sides across the archipelago.

Unlike most previous attempts at reconciliation, this one has been built from the ground up, not imposed by officials. It was based on the concept of baku bae, an Ambonese expression roughly meaning "end of fighting".

Dozens of representatives met last week at a hotel in the Javanese city of Yogyakarta, chosen as neutral ground. The meeting was heavily imbibed with Malukan community symbolism in the hope of uniting the islands.

Despite the intense blood-letting of the past two years, most Malukans share common ethnic ancestry and cultural traditions. The only successful attempt to stop the bloodshed so far has been in the southeastern Kai Islands, and based on concepts of adat ("community tradition").

Among the facilitators were two Malukan charities, Hualopu from the Christian side and Inovasi from the Muslim side. Also closely involved was the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation, a body that has won international acclaim for its work in protecting human rights.

Budi Santoso, director of the foundation's Yogyakarta branch, said the result was a provisional long-term agenda to resolve the conflict. It is to be publicised at several major Indonesian cities before further discussion in Ambon, the Malukus' capital, hopefully early next year. All sides accept that full reconciliation will take several years at least. "It was very productive," Mr Santoso said. "They hope these results can be fulfilled in Ambon."

The participants put the number of dead in two years of fighting at more than 8,000, making it possibly the bloodiest of the many conflicts to have hit Indonesia since the fall of Suharto in 1998. Fine details of the plan had deliberately been left vague, Mr Santoso said, to avoid feelings that decisions had been forced upon Malukans from outside, the stumbling block on which several previous peace agreements had failed.

"They left these things so there would not be misunderstanding by people in Ambon," he said. However, the broad ideas include a major public forum in Ambon some time early next year, division of troubled areas into Christian and Muslim safe zones and provision of peacekeepers drawn from the two sides. A road show is expected to tour Indonesia's major cities of Jakarta and Surabaya to publicise the plan, as well as Ujung Pandang in Sulawesi, which is flooded with refugees.

Febry Tetelepta, a member of a crisis centre set up by the Indonesian Communion of Churches, said: "We are trying to stop the conflict. Once the conflict is over we can talk about the law." His centre's work largely involves protecting the rights of the beleaguered Malukan Christians. "There must be a campaign. I am optimistic but this must be seen through." But many Malukans feel outsiders have been fomenting the violence for political motives.