JohnQPublic, Drilling rigs in Oklahoma are now being pulled into Texas NG activity... (OT) Also here's some background on the festering wounds in Indonesia currently..
Fragile Archipelago
The collapse of Indonesia's economy and the recent changes in its government have given a
variety of separatist movements new momentum. The changes have also contributed to a wave of
violence in parts of the troubled nation. Click on locations. Information will appear below the
map.
Fragile Archipelago
Cultural Window
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EAST TIMOR
For more than 450 years, East Timor was Portugal's colony on the island of
Timor. But the Portuguese rapidly withdrew from East Timor in 1975, creating a
political vacuum. The leftist Fretilin faction appeared to be winning out over its
rivals in the ensuing power struggle until Indonesian forces invaded. Jakarta
declared East Timor to be its 27th province in 1976, a move that sparked
international outrage and fueled the growing separatist movement there.
Human rights violations such as the killing of demonstrators in 1991 in the East
Timor capital, Dili, have kept the controversy in the public spotlight. Scores of
people have died in clashes, and two East Timorese activists, Roman Catholic
Bishop Carlos Belo and Jose Ramos-Horta (now a spokesman for the
separatists), won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1996 for their efforts to find a
non-violent resolution.
On September 4, 1999, East Timorese voters overwhelmingly chose
independence for their troubled homeland in a U.N.-sponsored ballot. In a
special meeting of the U.N. Security Council, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi
Annan said 78.5 percent of the voters had endorsed independence, rejecting an
Indonesian proposal of special autonomy for East Timor under Jakarta's
sovereignty.
IRIAN JAYA
The sparsely populated western half of the island of New Guinea -- the world's
largest tropical island -- comprises the Indonesian province of Irian Jaya, which
translates as "victorious hot land." New Guinea's eastern half, Papua New
Guinea, became an independent state in 1975. The Dutch-controlled western
half known as West Irian became part of Indonesia in 1963.
The government wants to maintain a firm hold on Irian Jaya, its 26th and largest
province, which makes up 22 percent of Indonesia's territory. It has relocated at
least 200,000 people from Java to "transmigration" camps in the vast province,
and another 50,000 have moved there voluntarily. Irian Jaya has a wealth of
natural resources, largely untapped, which include timber, copper, oil and gold.
Irian Jaya's indigenous population is mostly Christian, and ethnically and
culturally different from Indonesia's predominantly Muslim majority. Resentment
in Irian Jaya towards the government boiled over in the 1970s and '80s, and
thousands of separatist Irianese were killed during clashes with the Indonesian
Army. Some guerrillas, part of the Free Papua Movement, still operate in the
region along Irian Jaya's border with Papua New Guinea.
Dozens were killed in 1998, and separatist leaders have called for a boycott of
the June elections. They have also called for United Nations mediation, but the
U.N. recognizes Jakarta's claim on Irian Jaya.
ACEH
Also known as Acheh, Achin or Atjeh, Aceh is a special district located on the
northern part of Sumatra.
The people of Aceh are mostly ethnic Malays who practice Islam and, at the
end of the last century, fought Dutch control of the region. They have also
resisted Jakarta's rule, and unsuccessfully rebelled in 1953.
Indonesia declared Aceh an Area of Military Operations from 1990 to 1998 in an
effort to quell activities by the Aceh Merdeka, an armed separatist group which
is still strong in the region. According to a report by the human rights
organization Amnesty International, "serious human rights violations -- including
extrajudicial executions, 'disappearances,' torture and arbitrary arrests -- were
commonplace" in Aceh during that period.
Aceh is important to Jakarta, if only for the large oil and gas deposits in the
territory. There are also extensive agricultural investments there.
Indonesian riot troops were sent into Aceh in May 1999, and more than 70
people were arrested as authorities attempted to control secessionist
sympathies there before the June elections.
AMBON
One of Indonesia's Spice Islands, Ambon's clove trade attracted European
adventurers and colonialists as early as 1521. It was fought over by the
Portuguese, British and Dutch until finally coming under Dutch rule in 1814. The
Dutch presence created a relatively large Christian population in Ambon.
Following World War II, many Ambonese resisted becoming part of Indonesia
and attempted to establish an independent South Moluccan Republic, but
Indonesian troops suppressed the movement.
There has been a steady stream of Muslim immigrants to Ambon since the
establishment of the Indonesian Republic. For decades, Christians and
Muslims co-existed in relative peace, although the new settlers steadily
chipped away at the traditional Christian predominance. An Ambonese Muslim
became the island's governor in the early 1990s, however, and the change in
the island's power structure increased tensions there.
A series of church burnings and attacks on mosques in Jakarta and West
Timor brought the situation to critical mass. On November 22, 1998, at least 14
people were killed in clashes between religious factions in a part of Ambon
called Katapang. Government attempts to suppress the unrest proved
unsuccessful, and in January of 1999 what began as a street fight between a
Christian bus driver and a Muslim passenger escalated into the worst religious
fighting in Indonesia's history. More than 1,000 people were killed and
thousands more fled the island to escape the violence.
In March, the government began a major troop build-up in Ambon and the rest of
the former Spice Islands (now known as the province of Maluka), but violence
between Christians, Muslims and government forces continues to claim lives. |
