Persecuted Christians on Indonesias Ambon island face
desperate conditions – and the world is largely ignor-
ing their plight, two Americans who recently returned from a visit to the
island said.
As many as 500,000 Christians have been driven from their homes
and more than 2,500 have been killed by Muslim “jihad” warriors who
have publicly declared they will push all Christians off the island or kill
them.
Persecuted Christians on Indonesias Ambon island face
desperate conditions – and the world is largely ignor-
ing their plight, two Americans who recently returned from a visit to the
island said.
As many as 500,000 Christians have been driven from their homes
and more than 2,500 have been killed by Muslim “jihad” warriors who
have publicly declared they will push all Christians off the island or kill
them.
Christians are fleeing into the mountains, flooding into refugee
camps and clogging ports to wait for the few ships ferrying refugees off the
island. Meanwhile, a government reluctant to confront the extremists is refusing
to allow international intervention. Elements of the Indonesian army reportedly
are assisting the jihad warriors.
Drew Stephens and Brett Ferguson recently were in a refugee
camp on Ambon, just after Muslim fighters atacked the village of Waai, killing
two dozen people. Both are members at Riverside Baptist Church in Denver.
“Villagers were coming into the camp after walking 10
hours on a trail through the mountains,” Ferguson said. “Many of them
were malnourished. There were lots of children whose parents had been killed.
One baby we saw died of exposure from the long night of walking in the rain
over the hills.”
Ferguson and Stephens traveled to Indonesia with a member of
Riversides Indonesian mission congregation to videotape the persecution
Ambonese Christians are enduring.
Members of that mission congregation – many of whom have
friends and family in Indonesia – are extremely distressed that the United
States media are not telling the story of what is happening in Ambon, Stephens
said. The Ambon atrocities are not receiving nearly as much attention as those
that happened in Bosnia or Kosovo.
“Its so very difficult for our Indonesian friends
to know the kind of persecution happening to their friends and family,”
Stephens said. “I really felt compelled that we needed to go so we could
tell the story of whats happening there, not just for those people, but
also for the church in America.”
The team videotaped churches that had been burned out and people
who had been hospitalized because of injuries inflicted by jihad warriors. They
interviewed Christians in refugee camps while the sound of mortars and automatic
weapons fire echoed in the distance.
An evangelical missionary reported his amazement at the faithfulness
of Christians in the town of Ponegoro who were under attack by jihad forces.
“The Christians sing some of the most beautiful worship hymns of history
to praise and glorify Jesus Christ even as they are under siege,” he wrote.
“I wept every time I heard them singing – so worshipful and, yet,
in some ways, it was like a surrender to an inevitable death and the consequent
mourning.”
In Passo, a Christian town flooded with refugees, the missionary
received letters written by local children to the secretary general of the United
Nations.
One letter read: “We children of Ambon are very frightened
of the jihad soldiers and the army. They murder, loot, burn our homes, and chase
us away. They also rape the women they catch. The Lord has touched our hearts
to beg the UN to come to Ambon. Help us, we are suffering terribly.”
Tension between Muslims and Christians on Ambon and other of
the Maluku Islands dates at least as far back as 1945. Recent Muslim immigration
into Maluku has pushed the Christian population into a minority status. The
problem is complicated by powerful men who hope that by funding and arming Muslim
insurgents they can topple the moderate government of Indonesia and gain power
for themselves.
The current violence began in January 1999, when a dispute
about bus fare between a Muslim and a Christian escalated into riots. More recently,
trained fighters of the “Laskar Jihad” (Banner of Holy War) have entered
Ambon to eliminate the Christian population and establish a Muslim state on
the island. In 20 months, 455 churches have been destroyed and 2,500 Christians
killed. Muslim homes, businesses and mosques also have been destroyed in retaliation.
Well-armed Muslim fighters continue to overrun Christian towns,
forcing people into refugee camps that themselves are threatened, Ferguson said.
The fighting has forced aid organizations to leave the island – and food,
clothing and medical care are in short supply.
Catholic, Protestant and evangelical leaders in Ambon have
expressed concern to the United States and the European Union, saying they feel
the world is ignoring the crisis. Human rights organizations are calling for
military intervention to stop the violence and open an emergency humanitarian
aid corridor. They also are urging the Indonesian government to allow an impartial
investigation of the crisis by United Nations human rights observers.
Christian groups are calling believers worldwide to pray not
only for the refugees but also for the persecutors.
“The situation remains deadly dangerous, and our prayers
are critical,” said Randy Sprinkle, director of the Southern Baptist International
Mission Boards prayer strategy office. “Please join me in pleading
(Gods) mercy and praying his perfect will be done among the Christians
of Ambon. Pray also for the Muslims there, that Gods love in Christ might
be so powerfully evident that they would throw down their guns and turn to the
Savior in repentance and saving faith.” (BP)
(To contact the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta, e-mail jakconsul@state.gov. To contact
the Indonesian Embassy in Washington, persons may e-mail poldiv-kbriwash@erols.com
or fax (202) 775-5365. Audio and video reports on the persecution of Christians
in Indonesia may be accessed at the Southern Baptist International Mission Board
website at www.imb.org/frontpage.htm. Gifts for hunger and relief efforts in
the nation may be sent to International Mission Board, Hunger and Relief Fund,
Ambon Refugee Relief, P.O. Box 6767, Richmond, VA 23230.)