“The city remains segregated [between Muslim and Christian neighborhoods], mutual suspicions run high and violence frequently flares from the most trivial of causes,” the ICG report says.
“Basic flaws in policing have not been fixed and the absence of any serious investigations into high-profile incidents keeps the communities polarized and gives rise to conspiracy theories.”
It added that when investigations do take place, “the results are not made public, leading to allegations of cover-ups.”
ICG senior researcher Sidney Jones said the police’s slow investigation into the incidents in Ambon had not been caused by a lack of evidence.
“The [National Police] sent out their forensic investigators to conduct their examination, but so far no one has seen the results,” she said, adding that the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) was also reluctant to disclose its results.
“Authorities appeared to be withholding their findings in fear that it would spark further tensions should the truth come out. ”
But the Rev. Jack Manuputty of Ambon’s Maranatha church said that “society is mature enough to accept the truth.”
“The people need clarification about the cause of these incidents. It is better than the wild speculations that have been circulating,” he said.
Mufti Makaarim, executive director of the Institute for Defense, Security and Peace Studies, said that by disclosing the findings, people could be better prepared to detect potential conflicts and officials could formulate better public policies.
“It would help cases [of violence] in other areas, too,” he said. “We saw this type of cover-up during the [1999-2002] conflict with how the violence occurred. The number of casualties was never disclosed while the field and intellectual actors walked free and never prosecuted.”
Jones said the danger of leaving cases of violence unresolved was that they become prone to being politicized. “There are elements outside of Ambon that distort the truth, making it appear that a certain group was being massacred by another, fueling discontent elsewhere,” she said.
The ICG report notes that a provocative Web site labeled the September violence as “Indonesia’s Gaza” and that a member of the hard-line Jemaah Anshorut Tauhid served as a speaker in a discussion in Bekasi on “Exposing Facts and Data about the Christian Massacre of Ambonese Muslims.”
Mufti said that although there was no sign that hard-line groups and militants were behind the incidents, it was apparent that such groups benefited from the violence in Ambon.
Manuputty said the government had done little in countering such disinformation, prompting several Ambon figures from various religious groups to form an inter-community communications forum, comprised of a group of volunteers to verify rumors which could fuel hatred and violence.
