Will there finally be peace in the Indonesian Maluku Islands with the reported disbanding of the Laskar Jihad, an Islamic terrorist organization that has terrorized the Christian population in the Malukus for three years?
More than 2,000 Laskar Jihad troops invaded the Maluku Islands of Indonesia in 1999 in the beginning of what would become a two-year conflict between Muslims and Christians in the islands.
More than 10,000 people died in the conflict and tens of thousands more were forced to leave their homes after the Jihad threatened them with violence and murder.
While claiming to be in the Malukus to protect Muslims, the Jihad leadership defied local Islamic leaders. When Christian and Muslim leaders in the Malukus signed a cease-fire agreement in 2001, the leaders of the Jihad pledged not to abide by it and continued their attacks on non-Muslims.
The group’s leader, Jaffar Umar Thalib, is currently in jail on charges of attempting to undermine the Indonesian government.
Members were known for demanding that Christians in the Malukus convert to Islam or die. Some survivors of the terror told of enduring forced circumcision and genital mutilation. Stranger still was the fact that many Muslims in the area reported that they themselves had never practiced adult circumcision.
Others not actively fighting for the organization were seen on the streets of Indonesia’s urban centers, asking for donations from passers-by in support of the “fight” in the Malukus. However, after the closing of the terrorist organization’s headquarters in Yogyakarta on Oct. 13 there was no more street-corner fund-raising activity, residents reported.
More than 700 Laskar warriors, known for their white uniforms, left the Maluku capital of Ambon Oct. 15.
But a local reporter told CNN that at least 2,300 troops are still on the islands. Sources in the area told reporters the remaining members were being removed from the islands in stages.
“Up to 1,000 Laskar Jihad fighters have already left Ambon on a ferry bound for Jakarta,” a spokesman for the Barnabas Fund told Assist News Service. “This decision will certainly be welcomed by Christians in the region, especially if it results in an end to the violence and attacks on Christians that have continued despite the peace agreements signed at the beginning of 2002.”
“Laskar Jihad has portrayed itself as fighting to maintain the unity of the country against alleged Christian separatists,” explained a report released by the Barnabas Fund.
“So it would seem strange if they are now responding to a fatwa from Saudi Arabia unless they regarded themselves as Islamic warriors fighting a holy war against Christians,” the report continued.
“Many commentators are pointing to the strong links between Laskar Jihad and elements of the Indonesian military. In the very different environment following the bombing in Bali, these elements may have decided to break their links with groups such as Laskar Jihad in the knowledge that any such links would now come under the closest scrutiny from Western powers.”
The true reasons for the sudden retreat are still matters of conjecture. Some reports said the group was involved in the deadly Bali bombing that claimed more than 180 lives, mostly foreign tourists. Others tie the retreat to orders from an Islamic cleric in Saudi Arabia who declared that the Jihad in the Maluku area was finished. (EP)
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