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Informasikan Situasi Lingkungan Anda
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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CRISIS CENTRE DIOCESE OF AMBOINA
Jalan Pattimura 32 - Ambon 97124 - Indonesia
Tel 0062 (0)911 342195 Fax 0062 (0)911 355337
E-mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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Ambon, September 1, 2002
THE SITUATION IN AMBON / MOLUCCAS - Report No. 312
GRADUAL IMPROVEMENT IN AMBON (summary of a report on Masariku network)
1. Traffic - Mutual understanding between Muslims and Christians in
Ambon is gradually increasing. For those familiar with the city of Ambon:
the Pohon Mangga area of Airsalobar has been open to Christians for several
months already. Muslims from Pohon Mangga need not fear to get on a minibus
through the Christian Benteng, OSM and Batugantuang neighbourhoods towards
the inner city. A number of Christians are not afraid any more to travel
from Ambon to the airport at Laha (a distance of about 40 km) along the road
around the bay, thus going through a number of Muslim occupied areas, such
as Nania, Poka and Rumahtiga. As Muslims from Lei Hitu and Laha equally use
this road to Ambon, several hundreds of speedboat owners are in danger of
getting out of work. Muslims from Tulehu, Tial and Tengah-Tengah have no
fear any more to pass through Suli and Passo and through a series of
Christian villages on their way to Ambon. Inside the city itself more and
more "Christian vehicles" pass through Waihaong, the Jalan A.J.Patty,
Belakang Kota and the Jalan Pelabuhan.
2. Fraternizing - Socializing goes further than just traffic. Muslim
vendors at the bus terminal of Belakang Kota can see an increasing number of
Christians coming to them, some of them vendors themselves, allured by lower
prices of a number of goods. Even more so in front of the alternative
Pattimura University Campus, opposite the Military Hospital near the Pohon
Pule bridge. Also hotels like Mutiara, Amboina, Manise and Amans are meeting
places for Christians and Muslims on a higher level. As during the last few
years many people did not venture to go far from their villages, the
population of wild swines has dramatically increased, causing a lot of
damage to the crops. Christians eagerly comply to requests by Muslims to
come and hunt for these animals together with security forces. These swines
provide a most welcome addition to the Christian cuisine. The same applies
to the islands of Seram, Kelang etc.
Sports are a special form of fraternizing. In the wake of the national
Independence Day festivities, an intercommunal volley competition was
organized at the Lapangan Merdeka in the centre of the city, which attracted
thousands of spectators of both communities. On August 29 it culminated in
the Final Match between Mahia and a S.E.Moluccas team. At the same time 69
young men from the Christian village of Passo - together with their Muslim
counterparts - were busy cleaning a mosque in the Batumerah area. Likewise a
group of Muslim young people from Batumerah had worked on a church in Passo,
even passing the nights there.
In hotel Amans village elders and young people from several villagaes of
South Seram convened to design the reconstruction of their villages and -
especially - reconstructing normal social relations between the two
communities.
3. Politics - The polical atmosphere is warming up towards the election
of a new governor and vice governor of the Moluccas, which is to take place
next November. The Provincial House of Representatives has drawn up an
election committee. The four local daily newspapers elaborately report on
the development and on all kinds of opinions and proposals in this context.
C.J.B�hm msc, Crisis Centre Diocese of Amboina
