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Indonesia: Cautious Calm in Ambon
I. OVERVIEW
Months after an outbreak of Christian-Muslim violence in Ambon, the city seems quiet. Local authorities learned some lessons from the clashes on 11 September 2011, sparked by the death of a Muslim motorcycle taxi (ojek) driver in a Christian area. Security forces, for example, have been quicker to arrive on the scene in fights that break out along religious lines. While not all those dis-placed have returned home, some innovative efforts have been initiated to use reconstruction to foster reconcilia-tion. The government is much more conscious of the need to work with the telephone company to get mass text messages out when trouble occurs. Many issues remain unresolved, however, including physical segregation and mutual distrust between Christian and Muslim communi-ties, inadequate police capacity and lack of transparency in investigations into high-profile incidents. Ambon is hosting a national Quran reading contest (Musabaqah Ti-lawatil Quran, MTQ) in mid-June, and local authorities see it as an opportunity to showcase the city as a model of harmonious relations and a desirable place to invest. Christian and Muslim leaders alike want the contest to succeed as a matter of local pride, and its starting date has become an informal deadline by which all physical re-minders of the September violence are to be removed.
Another eruption of violence in mid-December, this time triggered by the unexplained death of a Christian public transport driver, was evidence of ongoing tensions. The city remains segregated, mutual suspicions run high and violence frequently flares from the most trivial of causes. Basic flaws in policing have not been fixed, and the ab-sence of any serious investigations into high-profile inci-dents keeps the communities polarised and gives rise to conspiracy theories. When investigations do take place, as happened after the death of the motorcycle driver that triggered the September violence, the results are not made public, leading to allegations of cover-ups. Radical ele-ments are active in Ambon, and their tendentious web-sites suggest a deliberate effort to fan communal flames.
Everyone interviewed could point to possible flashpoints ahead: elections for Central Maluku district head on 27 March 2012; the anniversary of the defunct independence movement, Republic of the South Moluccas (Republik Maluku Selatan, RMS) on 25 April; and the MTQ from 9 to 19 June. But as Ambon's bishop said in an interview in January, "I'm not worried about the big days. The danger is on the ordinary days when no one's paying attention".
II. FOLLOW-UP TO 11 SEPTEMBER: RECONSTRUCTION
Three neighbourhoods were damaged in the 11 Septem-ber violence: Waringin, Talake and Mardhika. A total of 750 households or 3,295 people were displaced, accord-ing to the governor.1 Much of Waringin, a predominantly Muslim area, was burned to the ground. In a visit to a dis-placed persons' camp on 27 September, the coordinating minister for people's welfare, Agung Laksono promised that the government would help by giving Rp.59 million ($6,500) per household to rebuild destroyed homes, Rp.25 million ($2,700) to repair those with serious damage and Rp.5 million ($560) to repair minor damage.2
Initially the funds were supposed to go through a govern-ment-provided contractor for quick reconstruction. But the displaced and the NGOs advocating on their behalf would have none of it. Courts were still hearing cases of corruption of government aid to victims of the conflict in 1999-2002 and no one trusted government contractors, who after earlier episodes of violence gave priority to those who paid extra, inflated the cost of building materi-als and produced shoddy results.3 Particularly for families from Waringin and Mardhika, who had lost their homes to arson for the third or fourth time in a decade, the idea of going through the government bureaucracy again was a nightmare.
An NGO activist saw an opportunity for reconciliation by getting the women of Waringin, mostly Muslim, together with women from the Christian neighbourhoods of Ta-lake and Mardhika to lobby the city government for direct cash payouts of the amounts promised by Minister Lak-sono. Together they represented about 200 families, and .....
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