_WORLD WATCH______________________________
___________________INDONESIA___________________
Christmas bombings
Military involvement charged
Bombs placed in Catholic churches in nine cities and towns throughout Indonesia on Christmas Day killed at least 17 people and injured about 100.
Government officials and Muslim religious leaders had asked Muslims to keep the peace as the end of the month-long Ramadan fast approached this week, which coincided this year with the celebration of Christmas. Indonesia is the world’s most populous Muslim country, and the country has been rocked by attacks on the Christian minority in the past two years.
Thousands of security police were on the streets of Jakarta and other parts of the Asian country after the bombings, guarding churches and other houses of worship. “We are on alert. Worshippers are now targets for attack,” said a Jakarta Police spokesman, Supt. Anton Bachrul Alam. On Christmas Day itself, police arrested two men accused of operating a makeshift bomb factory in Bandung, 80 miles southeast of Jakarta. A device they were assembling blew up prematurely, killing three others, police said. Dozens of others have been detained elsewhere.
No one has claimed responsibility for the Christmas attacks. Many of the bombs were placed in cars outside churches, and all detonated at the same time of day. President Abdurrahman Wahid, a prominent Muslim, called for calm and labeled the bombings “acts of terrorism” aimed at destabilizing his government. He said the perpetrators want an outbreak of violence that would force him from office and derail democratic reforms he has instituted in his 14 months in office.
Early in January, Indonesia’s defense minister said that former soldiers of the National Defense Forces (TNI) were behind the bombings. “I say this because the incidents happened at the same time as several ex-TNI members were being investigated,” the Indonesian Observer quoted Defense Minister Muhammad Mahfud as saying. Mahfud said the bombing was under the control of a very powerful man. Although he declined to identify that individual, he challenged reporters to do their own investigations: “How many ex-generals are there in Indonesia. You know who they are,” he said.
Jihad continues
Forced conversions reported; refugee flow increases
In a separate but related campaign of violence, extremist Muslims pressed their jihad campaign against Christians on the Moluccan islands. While a government fact-finding team headed to Kasiui, the center of the latest bloodshed, few witnesses would speak openly with investigators, because they said they feared reprisals. And the flood of Christian refugees from the Moluccas continued. The Fides news agency reported that as many as 6,000 Christians were effectively held hostage by Muslim zealots. Some had reportedly been forced to undergo circumcision, marriage to Muslim spouses, and religious conversion.
Observers now estimate that more than 8,000 people have died since the conflicts in the Moluccas exploded in 1998. Bishop Petrus Canisius Mandaga of Amboina has issued a plea for help to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan. “We call on the international community—in the name of human dignity, human rights, order, and the security of people’s lives—to help the Indonesian government to end the savagery and violence in the Moluccas and the forced conversions,” he wrote. The bishop observed that the Indonesian government “has proved unable to end the conflict in the Moluccas,” and “failed to guarantee and maintain justice and human rights, because of a lack of seriousness and constancy, honesty, and integrity.”
Muslims bow to UN pressure
Morning-after pill approved
The Inter Press Service reported in December that a major Islamic religious group in Indonesia has bowed to the United Nations, the World Health Organization, and others involved in an international promotion of the abortifacient morning-after pill.
The Muhammadiyah has agreed to stock its clinics with Postinor-2, the version of the abortifacient drugs the international consortium has been distributing in Asia. The religious group cited sections from the Qu’ran, claiming the drugs did not offend the teachings of Islam. They have accepted the argument that the drugs prevent pregnancy rather than cause abortion of an already created human being. Muhammadiyah is also organizing seminars promoting the drugs. The report notes that Muhammadiyah’s support was crucial in having Postinor-2 registered with health authorities in Indonesia—a prime target for population controllers since it is the world’s fourth most populous nation.
Back to Catholic World Report February 2001 Table of Contents