Indonesia Grapples With Resignation, Unrest

President Abdurrahman Wahid, in power a month, returned from a controversial foreign trip Friday to the resignation of a top minister and fresh communal violence in one of Indonesia’s most bloodied provinces.

Wahid has been criticized for spending too much time abroad instead of dealing with the mounting problems that threaten to shatter the country. He returned Friday from a tour of the Middle East and leaves again today for a summit of the Assn. of Southeast Asian Nations in Manila.

On Friday, fighting between Muslims and Christians erupted on the eastern island of Ambon. Thousands wielding homemade guns, knives and bows and arrows clashed in a suburb of devastated Ambon city, killing at least 38 people and wounding hundreds, authorities said.

In Jakarta, the capital, Hamzah Haz resigned as coordinating welfare minister.

Haz, leader of the Muslim-backed United Development Party, has been repeatedly named in the local press as one of three ministers targeted for investigation over corruption allegations. Haz, who has denied the allegations, is one of only a few ministers to have survived the brief and unpopular government under Wahid’s predecessor, former president B.J. Habibie.

A top politician said Haz’s departure was not a good sign.

“It has been only one month, and there’s already a change. This rarely happens. So it needs better control from the president,” the Antara news agency quoted Amien Rais, a Wahid ally and head of the top legislative assembly, as saying.

But political analysts showed little concern over Haz’s resignation.

“I don’t think it’s anything serious. . . . This is not like the case of [former President] Suharto when 11 ministers resigned,” said Aristides Katoppo, editor of Suara Pembaruan daily.

Suharto, facing growing violent protest against his rule, stepped down in May last year following the mass resignation.

Also Friday, amid growing calls for independence in the staunchly Muslim province of Aceh in northern Sumatra, Wahid said he had quietly met with members of the rebel Free Aceh Movement.