FRIDAY-SATURDAY-SUNDAY
July 7-9, 2000
volume 11, no. 118

NEWS for Friday-Saturday-Sunday, July 7-9, 2000
FEARFUL CHRISTIANS READY TO FLEE INDONESIAN ISLANDS

AMBON, Indonesia (FIDES/CWNews.com)

    After consulting with the residents of the violence-torn island of Ambon, a Catholic bishop is flying to Geneva to ask for immediate UN intervention to end the fighting there, the Vatican news service FIDES has revealed.

    Bishop Petrus Canisius Mandagi of the Amboina diocese will ask for international assistance to end the fighting in the Mollucan islands, where Ambon is located. He will be accompanied on his trip to Rome by two Protestant leaders from the region: the chairmen of the Molluccan Protestant and Evangelical church bodies.

    As the Christian leaders head for Europe in search of international aid, the crisis in the Mollucas continues to grow. In the early days of July, an estimated 2,000 Muslim zealots, many of them carrying automatic weapons, have arrived in the Mollucas to pursue the "jihad" against Christians which their leaders have proclaimed.

  • On the morning of July 6, the village of Waai was attacked. Residents begged for help from the nearby Maranatha Crisis Center, operated by a Protestant group. The Indonesian army and navy ignored their requests to be evacuated from the area.

  • In the city of Amboina, the Keuskupan Christian Crisis Center reports that the tension is mounting. Residents fear that a large-scale attack will be launched on their community; many of them have packed their few belongings and are ready for flight.

  • Local sources have reported to FIDES that the Muslim "jihad" warriors now gathering in the Mollucas are of Achenese, Dayak, Madurese, and Javanese ethnic origin. Although the Indonesian government has announced a formal policy prohibiting Muslim zealots from entering the troubled region, local police and military officials are doing nothing to prevent their arrival or protect the local Christian population.

  • After a visit to a refugee camp located on the Halong naval base, one aid worker told Fides that the refugees living there-- numbering more than 10,000, most of them Christians-- are receiving only a scant ration of rice every week. Moreover, the refugees are still living in fear of a military assault on their camp.

        Throughout the Mollucas, tens of thousands of Christians are waiting to be evacuated-- especially from Ambon.

        Bishop J. Tethool, acting together with the secretary general of the Protestant Church of the Mollucas, Max. M. Siahaya, has issued a public appeal on behalf of all Christians. Their statement warns: "In this first week of civil emergency, there has been no improvement; on the contrary the situation gets worse. Thousands of Christians are under tremendous pressure, they urgently call on their Church leaders to help them evacuate to safe locations elsewhere."

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