Ambon City
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Ambon City (1990 pop. 275,888) is the main city and seaport of Ambon Island, and is the capital of Maluku (Indonesian province) province of Indonesia. It is one of the largest cities in eastern Indonesia. The city was the site of some of the worst violence between Christian and Muslim groups that gripped the Maluku archipelago between 2000 and 2002.
Ambon City has an airport, and was home to the Pattimura University, a state university, and the Indonesian Christian University of Maluku (Universitas Kristen Indonesia Maluku, or UKIM), a private Protestant university, though both were seriously damaged during the violence in 2000-2002.
Ambon was colonized by Portugal in 1526, until the Portuguese were driven out by the Dutch in 1609. Except for brief periods of British rule, the island remained under Dutch control until Indonesia's independence in 1948. During the Dutch period, Ambon City was the seat of the Dutch resident and military commander of the Moluccas. The town was protected by Fort Victoria, and a 1911 encyclopedia characterized it as "a clean little town with wide streets, well planted". The population was divided into two classes: orang burger or citizens, and orang negri or villagers, the former being a class of native origin enjoying certain privileges conferred on their ancestors by the old Dutch East India Company. There were also, besides the Dutch, some Arabs, Chinese and a few Portuguese settlers. Ambon City was the site of a major Dutch naval base, which was captured in World War II by the Japanese in 1942. Ambon was a center of Christian missionary activity, and Ambon and the surrounding islands have many Christians as well as the Muslims that predominate in most of Indonesia.
In 1950, Ambon City was the center of an uprising against Indonesian rule, which resulted in the Republic of the South Moluccas declaring its independence from Indonesia. Indonesia reasserted control in 1952. Nationalist sentiment continued on the islands, and many local Christians believe that the South Moluccas (the only part of Maluku with a Christian majority) should be an independent state with Ambon as its capital.
Inter-communal violence between Christians and Muslims broke out in January 1999 after a fight broke out between a Christian bus driver and a Muslim youth on January 19th, and resulted in the destruction of parts of Ambon City, including parts of Pattimura University. Violence escalated as the army brought in bombs and weapons. Although there had been no serious incidents prior to 1999, tensions were simmering and relations between Christians and Muslims were very poor.
The problems were exarcebated by the inability of police and army to keep control: with endemic corrupution and fundamental sectarian splits and mistrust of people of the other religion, police were joining in the violence taking sides according to their religion (and implicitly the area they came from as well). In particular, the army used lethal force and increasing the number of deaths, where a better-marshalled force might have used rubber bullets, water cannon and other such control measures. Each side claimed bias of the police and forces: the local (mainly Christian) police were seen as anti-Muslim by the Muslims and the Indonesian army (many of whom were from [Ujung Pandang] in Sulawesi, home of the Buginese (the race of most Muslims in Ambon)) were seen as favouring Mulsims by Christians.
Fighting has erupted sporadically since 1999, and many Ambonese were been displaced by the violence. The violence decreased in late 2002, and, aside from a spate of bombings in April 2004, as of January 2005, the city is relatively peaceful. The Islamic group Laskar Jihad, which drew members from Java in an effort to 'protect' Muslims in the area were involved in some of the violence, but disbanded itself in October 2002, though rumours after the April 2004 bombings held that it had regrouped.
Sectarian divides mean that outsiders are discouraged from visiting the area, and the city of Ambon is still partially segregated along religious lines. However, since the peace accord, people from both faiths has had increasing rate of interaction through trade and commerce, and multi-faith schools are appearing once more.
