DOCUMENT: MALUKU2.TXT S T O P V I O L A T I O N S O F H U M A N A N D C O L L E C T I V E R I G H T S O N M A L U K U The republic of Indonesia is still not a democratic state. In spite of the existence of a representative body of the people, the most important demands which are needed for a democratic state, are barely to be found in the Indonesia of general Suharto. In Indonesia nowadays there is no freedom of the press, the trade unions may not talk and the Indonesian army controls Indonesian society within the smallest villages and the most distant islands. The western media pays attention to the violation of human-rights by the military regime in Jakarta to the areas of East-Timor, Aceh and West Papua. Less known is the violation of human - & collective rights on another part of East Indonesia: Maluku (the Moluccas - country of thousand islands). Homeland Mission 1950 is a Moluccan political organization in Holland whose aim is to make the violation of human and collective rights on the Moluccan islands known to the people in Holland. The Mission also wants to draw the attention of the international press, governments and non-governmental organizations in Europe and, as far as possible, outside Europe too. Homeland Mission 1950 does this by means of e.g. picket-lines and information-meetings about her participation in the U.N. Working Group for Indigenous Peoples, network of Indigenous peoples organizations, N.G.O's and her solicitation at Amnesty International in London and to the Commission on Human Rights of the United Nations in Geneva. Also in 1993 - the International Year of Indigenous Peoples - Homeland Mission 1950 wants to address the world community in general and the governments in particular, about the "severe violations" of the rights of the original inhabitants of Maluku. Homeland Mission acts with the authority of the military mission which is based on a mandate from the first president of the Republic of the South Moluccas. To date, the Indonesian U.N. representatives still fights the proclamation of the Republic of South Moluccas (April 25, 1950) as a legitimate case based upon the right of determination, a right that all people have according to international law. 1950 refers to the year when the Republic of the South Moluccas was declared by the Moluccan Council with an appeal to the right of self- determination for all peoples. Homeland Mission 1950 wants to prevent: - violations of human rights - violations of political rights, such as the right to have an own political conviction - violations of the right to self-determination - the exploitation of the economic-natural resources of Maluku - environmental destruction on the Moluccan islands and destruction of the Moluccan Indigenous culture, by lobbying international bodies with the ultimate view of the realization of the right of self-determination for the Moluccan indigenous people on the Moluccas. Moluccan society is violated in several ways: a. native Moluccan culture b. political identity c. education d. health/medical care (supplies) e. environment and society development A. THE INDIGENOUS MOLUCCAN CULTURE The Moluccan people have, as every people all over the world, their own culture. It's close related to the Melanesian cultures as it exists on the Fiji-Islands, Vanuatu, etc. Violations by the military regime in Jakarta are related to the fact that the people on the islands Seram and Buru are forbidden to wear their own traditional clothes. They are forced to wear Javanese clothes. The religious-cultural churches, the baileo's were pulled down by the military police; the Moluccan indigenous people were forbidden under threat to rebuild the baileo's left. The Moluccan language is systematically being destroyed by the central government in Jakarta, because of the selective language and education programme at school. Moluccan terms relating to the indigenous people were replaced by Javanese. For example: Negeri (village) was replaced by the Javanese word "dessa". The biggest threat of the Moluccan culture is the desecrating of the sacred area Manusela. The area Manusela is situated in the middle of Seram, the native island of the 1,000-isles of Maluku (South East Asia). In the world history known as the "Isles of Spices". ...Manusela is a sacred area: The Siwa-Rima nation, the original inhabitants of the Maluku, considers Manusela as a sacred gift from nature because the Siwa-Rima nation is arised and originated from that area; from Manusela the Siwa-Rima nation separated and spread to inhabit the thousand isles of Maluku... Today Manusela is desecrated and violated by unauthorized persons under the auspicien of the World Wildlife Fund from the United Nations by declaring the area as a "Nature park" and use it as a viewbox for touristy purpose. Another important policy-instrument of the central government in poisoning Moluccan indigenous culture and society is Transmigration, in combination with birth control-programmes. Since 1954 until the beginning of 1988, 12,440 transmigrants-families, according to official figures, were transmigrate to Maluku. The official announcement in the Indonesian papers, for instance in an article in the Indonesian paper "Merdeka" in June 1990, stated that 8,368 families of Java and Bali were transmigrated to the Moluccan islands Seram and Buru. Merdeka forgot, for convenience sake, to mention the real number of people moving from Java and Bali; in reality the number is much higher. Besides that, there's also a secret transmigration, the so- called "tranmigrasi glap" of people moving from Bali and Java to Maluku. This fact and the rationing by law of 2 children per married couple is leading to the fast disappearing of Moluccan indigenous culture. So the creation of the "new Indonesian human being" will become a fact. The International community must take this into account. B. THE RIGHT TO HAVE POLITICAL CONVICTION Homeland Mission has established from her contacts with the Moluccan people, that the military regime in Jakarta to this very day, is guilty of the torture, and persecution of Moluccan indigenous people, who support the RMS and support the resistance against the military regime (RMS = Republic Maluku Selatan = to strive after this independent Republic on grounds of the right of self-determination). - In April 1988 Moluccan indigenous people on the island Saparua were arrested and tortured in imprisonment because they hoisted the RMS-flag. Homeland Mission brought the case before the Human Right Committee in Geneva. The late Mrs. Hatu- Syauta, foreign representative of South Moluccas, succeeded in drawing the attention of the special UN- reporter, the Dutch Scholar Mr. P.H. Kooyman to the severe ill-treatment and torture. - In 1990 arrests and molestation took place of partisans of the R.M.S. Homeland Mission notified Amnesty International in London, among others Amnesty International promised to investigate this case. The Indonesian state-ideology Panca Sila (which means: unity in variety) is denied by the above facts. The striving of the central government in Jakarta for a "Orang Indonesia Baru yang Sempurna" (the new perfect Indonesian people) again shows the inability of the Jakarta regime to put state-ideology into practice. C. EDUCATION PROVISIONS Central government in Jakarta systematically holds down the numbers of Moluccan indigenous students in further education. From contacts it appeared that at the University of Pattimura in the town Ambon the participation of non-Moluccan indigenous students is about 60%. D. HEALTH/MEDICAL CARE In 1991 the WHO - World Health Organization (a sub organisation of the United Nations) awarded a prize to President Suharto for increasing the level of healthcare in Indonesia. Written accounts from the Moluccas has showed the reality of medical- care in Indonesia. It appeared that Moluccan indigenous patients have to take care of their own bath-water and sheets. Medicines, despite the claims of Jakarta, are not free not even when the patient has health insurance. Enforced sterilization as part of birth-control happens frequently. Women started by the age of 10 till the age of 49 are getting contraceptives - injections without knowing what meaning it has. Also other contraceptives are being used, there are all contraceptives which for medical reasons are rejected in the western world. Parties are being organized and presents has been given to little children to attract these women. All these information are derived from the "Working Paper" called "Aspects of social-economic development in Maluku" made up by order of the ITC, International Training Centre in Holland. Therefore the WHO-award is a slap in the face of the indigenous peoples. E. ENVIRONMENT AND SOCIETY-DEVELOPMENT IN THE MOLUCCAS. The Moluccan indigenous people on the Moluccan islands in East- Indonesia live off the land and the sea. Because of deforestation which favours Javanese and Balinese migrants, the social-economic position of the Moluccan indigenous people becomes weaker. Deforestation takes place all over the Moluccan islands (Yamdena, a small island in one of the chain of Tanimbar islands / South East Moluccas, 164,000 ha. was given in concession in April 1991 to PT Alam Nusa Segar). In 1987 the Indonesian government started a timber-factory in West- Seram which produced 12000 cubic metres multiplexboards per month (1988). This factory is one of the biggest in the world of its kind. The expropriation of private land and enforced transmigration of the indigenous people and for the benefit of Suharto's family-companies without fair compensation, is proof yet again of the lust of power of president Suharto and his gang. The selling off, of Moluccan fishing waters by the central government in Jakarta to Japanese enterprises marginalizes the Moluccan indigenous people! Indonesian military-regime is strengthened in her reshaping of society and environment by the aid she receives from the World Bank. However this is all happening at the expense of the Moluccan indigenous people! Therefore the Homeland Mission 1950 pleads for the Dutch to carry out a more selective policy. This applies to other international governments, especially when it concerns development assistance and development funds to the Indonesian central government. Considering the facts mentioned above, Homeland Mission 1950 thinks it is time the international responsible governments, including the Dutch government show some interest on behalf of the Moluccan indigenous people on the Moluccas! HOMELAND MISSION 1950 ALSO APPEALS TO THE CONSCIENCE OF EACH CITIZEN ALL OVER THE WORLD!! If you are convinced of the necessity of the work of Homeland Mission 1950 and you want some more information, please write to: HOMELAND MISSION 1950 MALUKU P.O. BOX 9841 1006 AM AMSTERDAM HOLLAND FAX.NR. 08334-75388 MEPPEL, JULY 1993 -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: :: -= THE FOURTH WORLD DOCUMENTATION PROJECT =- :: :: A service provided by :: :: The Center For World Indigenous Studies :: :: www.cwis.org :: ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Originating at the Center for World Indigenous Studies, Olympia, Washington USA www.cwis.org © 1999 Center for World Indigenous Studies (All Rights Reserved. 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