Religious Attack in Indonesia Sets Back Peace Bid

The predawn attack, Hengky Tahya recalled Monday from his hospital bed, came from three directions--the sea, the road and the jungled hill above his Christian village. It lasted seven hours, and he estimated that it involved about 1,000 men, some dressed in the white robes of Muslim warriors.

“We were no match for them,” said Tahya, who was lucky to escape with a bullet wound in his shoulder. “We had swords and homemade guns. They had automatic weapons. I know they were automatic by the sound when they fire: dut-dut-dut-dut.”

By the time the attackers withdrew Sunday, Haruku village on the tiny island of Haruku, 20 miles east of Ambon, lay in ruins, with at least 25 of its residents dead and 21 wounded.

The attack represented a major setback for Muslim and Christian leaders who met in Jakarta, the Indonesian capital, last week and signed a declaration of reconciliation intended to end religious violence that has claimed about 2,000 lives in the Maluku island chain in the past year.

The attack on Haruku, about 1,600 miles east of Jakarta and the site of an important Japanese air base in World War II, also was an embarrassment for President Abdurrahman Wahid. He has staked his political fortunes on fulfilling a promise to end strife wrought by sectarian conflict and separatist movements in Indonesia. So far, he has had little success.

In his quest for peace, Wahid sent his vice president, Megawati Sukarnoputri, to Ambon on Monday for a three-day tour of the remote archipelago previously known as the Moluccas, or Spice Islands.

Megawati, whose aloof style has earned her the derisive nickname “Sleeping Princess,” made no public comments to reporters at the Ambon airport when asked about her goals in her scheduled meetings with Christians and Muslims. But news reports quoted Indonesian officials as saying later that she had been able to mediate a cease-fire.

Government security forces in Ambon, the Malukus’ commercial hub and the center of the world’s clove trade under Dutch colonialists, went on heightened alert after the Haruku massacre. Both Christians and Muslims have made it a practice to retaliate when attacked. Often the retaliations are carried out in villages hundreds of miles from the original slaughter, adding to the widespread tension and fear in the Malukus.

Sunday evening, doctors at GPM Hospital in Ambon posted a list of the dead and treated the wounded who had arrived in private speedboats from Haruku.

Meanwhile, six Christian leaders traveled down a rutted road to the home of Sammy Titaley, the top Christian leader on Ambon island. The island is about evenly divided between Christians and Muslims, but Indonesia as a whole is more than 90% Muslim.

None of the leaders called for retaliation for the Haruku attack, but all wanted a response during Megawati’s visit. Some said they should stage a massive demonstration. Others called for the withdrawal of security forces sent to quell violence, forces whom the Christians accuse of siding with the Muslims--just as the Muslims accuse them of siding with the Christians.

Titaley, dressed in shorts and a striped polo shirt, heard them out and deflected their complaints that he wasn’t active enough in defending his people. He smoked, sipped tea and sat silently.

A demonstration would be counterproductive and might lead to violence, he said. And the Christians already were on record with their demand for the military withdrawal. Bringing it up again wouldn’t accomplish anything, he said.

“You’ve got to think and rethink your positions and understand what the impact will be when you make demands or call for demonstrations,” Titaley said. He told the leaders that the best strategy was to give Megawati a written petition with their grievances.

Later, after the leaders had left, he said in an interview that he had witnesses who reported that the armed forces had taken part in the Haruku attack.

“I think we’ve got a big problem here,” Titaley said.