wfn.org | "The People Are Suffering" in East Indonesia

[APD_Info_Schweiz@compuserve.com]

October 8, 2000
Adventist Press Service (APD)
Christian B. Schaeffler, Editor-in-chief
Fax +41-61-261 61 18
APD@stanet.ch
http://www.stanet.ch/APD
CH-4003 Basel, Switzerland

"The People Are Suffering" says Adventist Leader in East 
Indonesia

Manado, Sulawesi Utara, Indonesia - Religious violence in 
Indonesia, which has created a mass of refugees in the 
region since January 1999, is again worsening, says 
Pastor Reinhold Kesaulya, president of the Seventh-day 
Adventist Church in east Indonesia. 

Kesaulya cites action by Muslim militants as well as the 
failure of local and national officials to stop the 
sectarian violence as the main causes of the rapidly 
deteriorating situation, which has left an estimated 
3,000 Christians dead and thousands more homeless. 

Kesaulya reports that at least 15 Adventists have been 
killed in the violence and 12 churches have been burned, 
along with 55 homes of church members. "[Adventists] can 
no longer stay in their villages," says Kesaulya. "They 
have to go to stay in the jungle" or try to leave the 
region for the safer province of Manado. 

Almost every aspect of the Adventist Church work in the 
region is under siege, says Kesaulya. Fighting near 
Maluku Academy in Ambon, which until recently was 
considered a safe haven, has forced the school to close 
and its teachers and students have all fled, he says. 

"Only the members that live quite near their church are 
able to come to services," says Kesaulya, and due to 
safety concerns, "no meetings can be held in the 
evenings." He adds that the church's publishing 
department has been decimated by the fact that 
colporteurs, or book-sellers, can no longer visit houses 
to sell books. 

The safety of church workers and members can no longer be 
guaranteed in Ambon or Central Sulawesi, says Kesaulya, 
and many pastors have been relocated. He says that the 
Adventist Church president in Maluku is staying in Ambon 
to minister to the remaining church members in the area, 
although his wife has been evacuated. 

Street fighting and night attacks on the homes of 
Christians continue, while sniper fire in the streets has 
become another security problem in recent months. "No one 
knows where these people are getting their weapons," says 
Kesaulya, who notes that the number of machine guns being 
used is increasing. 

Kesaulya says that church leaders are trying to keep the 
churches running as normally as possible under the 
circumstances. But finances are stretched with virtually 
no tithe or offerings coming in from the troubled 
regions. There is also the added financial strain of 
evacuating church workers and providing basic food and 
shelter for some 1,000 Adventist refugees who have 
congregated near the church headquarters in Manado, 
Sulawesi Utara. Manado is "about the only area left 
untouched" by the violence, says Kesaulya. 

Looking ahead, Kesaulya believes that the long-term 
resettlement of refugees is one of the most pressing 
problems facing church leaders in the region. He is 
hoping that land in Manado can be obtained where church 
members can begin growing crops to support themselves, 
but says that even if this is possible, the church 
members in Manado will have to continue supporting the 
refugees with necessities for at least four months until 
the crops mature. Kesaulya, who has taken ten refugees 
into his own home, says that many Adventists in Manado 
are involved in helping to care for those of other 
Christian churches who have fled the violence. 

Dr. John Graz, public affairs and religious liberty 
director for the Seventh-day Adventist Church worldwide, 
has written to Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid 
asking the government to renew its efforts to bring 
"peace and harmony for the good of all citizens, no 
matter what their religion." Graz has also written about 
the situation to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on 
religious intolerance. 

Indonesian political unrest spilled over into Maluku in 
the form of religious violence during Ramadan, January 
1999. This intensified during Ramadan, December 1999 / 
January 2000, moving into Sulawesi and Central Indonesia. 
By May 2000, thousands of warriors, trained, armed and 
funded from Java, were pouring into  Maluku for AHoly 
War@ against the Christians. In these 21 months, some 
4,000 have died and an estimated 350,000 are displaced, 
multitudes being injured, crippled, starving, traumatised 
and grieving, creating a massive humanitarian crisis. A 
state of emergency, declared in June 2000, has failed to 
restore order.