ConflictBarometer_2015

ASIA AND OCEANIA
until 01/09/16. The operations involved units from both the
districts' and the provincial command, as well as a Mobile
Brigade Corps and elements of counterterrorism unit Densus
88. While the operations continued, President Joko ''Jokowi''
Widodo authorized military exercise Anoa Laut in Poso, involving
approx. 3,200 TNI soldiers and lasting from March
22 to April 3. Government officials declared that it served
as a training exercise and a security measure for the sailing
parade Sali Tomini. On March 31, then-Commander of the TNI
Moeldoko announced that a battalion of 700 soldiers would
remain stationed in Sulawesi as a Quick Response Strike
Force to support police raids if necessary after the military
exercise had ended. During operations ''Camar Maleo IIV'',
the police arrested at least 27 suspected militants in Sulawesi
accused of connections to MIT and supporting IS. In total, the
operations led to 14 fatalities in Sulawesi, among them six
militants, two security personnel, and six civilians.
Throughout the year, police seized small weapons, ammunition,
and explosive devices in Sulawesi and Jakarta. Outside
of Sulawesi, police officers killed one militant in a shootout
in Kediri, East Java province, on January 16. The following
month, suspected IS-supporters launched a bomb attack in
a shopping mall in the capital Jakarta, causing light damage.
Police and Densus 88 arrested at least 29 people, among
them 24 on the island of Java and five on the island of Nusa.
On November 22, MIT leader Abu Warda Santoso published a
video on Facebook calling for attacks on police headquarters
and the presidential palace in Jakarta. As a consequence, government
officials increased the security personnel and raised
the security alert from low to medium. In December, the National
Police, supported by security agencies from Australia,
Singapore, and the US, detected an alleged suicide attack plot
planned for New Year's Eve. The government subsequently
increased the security alert to the highest level for the entire
country and launched ''Operation Candle'', scheduled from
December 24 to 01/02/16. It mobilized approx. 150,000
TNI and National Police personnel to secure important sites
and to conduct targeted raids against Islamists throughout
the country. In Jakarta, more than 20,000 security forces
safeguarded New Year's festivities. lwe
INDONESIA (MUSLIMS CHRISTIANS)
Intensity: 3 | Change: | Start: 1998
Conflict parties:
Conflict items:
Muslims, FPI vs. Christians
subnational predominance
The conflict over subnational, religious predominance between
Muslims and Christians continued at the level of a
violent crisis. While violent inter-religious tensions had
sporadically occurred since the early years of the country's
independence, large-scale violence broke out with the fall of
the Suharto regime in 1998. In the transition period between
1998 and 2002, clashes between Muslims and Christians on
the Maluku archipelago and the islands of Sulawesi repeatedly
reached the level of a limited war. In February 2002,
Christian and Muslim community leaders concluded two separate
peace treaties for the Moluccan island of Ambon and
the city of Poso in Sulawesi, which had been the epicenters of
the violence. Despite this, violent tensions between Muslims
and Christians continued to erupt in both regions as well as
other parts of Indonesia, reinforced by the transmigration of
Muslims to predominantly Christian regions and countrywide
anti-Christian mobilization by Islamist organizations, most
notably the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI).
In 2015, tensions on the Maluku archipelago de-escalated,
while outbreaks of violence occurred in the provinces of
Aceh, Papua, and Central Sulawesi. On January 15, Islamist
militants killed three Christian villagers in Tangkura near Poso,
Central Sulawesi [→ Indonesia (Islamist militant groups)]. On
June 13, members of the Christian Indonesian Bible Church
Congregation (GIDI) reportedly circulated flyers in Tolikara,
Papua, complaining about the use of loudspeakers at a local
mosque and demanding prayers not to take place near a
Christian seminar. Four days later, during the festival of Eid
al-Fitr, about 200 GIDI members gathered to stop Muslim
migrants from conducting their prayers. Breaking into a riot,
the Christian mob hurled stones, set the mosque ablaze, and
torched several houses, kiosks, and vehicles in the Muslimpopulated
vicinity. About 150 Muslims fled to a nearby
military compound. Security forces shot dead one rioter and
injured eleven others. On July 22, community leaders in
Tolikara shook hands in a public peace ceremony. In the aftermath
of the widely circulated attack, arson attacks against
churches were reported in several cities on the island of
Java. The government arrested two Christians for instigating
the riots and deployed more than 300 additional police and
military personnel to Central Sulawesi to protect churches
and viharas.
In Aceh, an autonomous province adhering to Islamic Law,
incidents of burning churches attributed to Islamist arsonists
were reported in August and September. In early October,
members of Islamist organizations staged a demonstration
demanding the demolition of churches constructed without
building permit. The local government acceded to the
protesters' demands, but did not proceed with the demolition
immediately. Under the 2006 decree on the construction
of houses of worship, religious minorities were required to
attain supportive signatures from at least 60 people of other
religious belief as well as the approval from the local religious
agency. On October 13, members of FPI and the
Aceh Singkil Islamic Care Youth Students Association torched
two Protestant churches in the villages of Suka Makmur and
Dangguran as well as one Catholic church, claiming they had
been built without permits. The attackers, numbering at least
500 people, were confronted by local Christians as well as
military and police personnel, which had been deployed in
anticipation of the attacks. In the ensuing fights, one Muslim
was shot dead with an air rifle, while three others as well
as one soldier were injured. The police arrested at least
ten attackers. In the aftermath, thousands of Christians fled
to neighboring districts. President Joko ''Jokowi'' Widodo
and the Indonesian Ulema Council condemned the violence.
The government deployed at least 1,300 police and military
forces to the region to oversee the return of the IDPs, patrol
the streets, and guard Christian services and churches.
They also oversaw the demolition of the unlicensed churches,
which started on October 19. jfr
INDONESIA (PAPUA)
Intensity: 3 | Change: | Start: 1961
Conflict parties:
Conflict items:
OPM, KNPB, ULMWP vs. government
secession, resources
The secession conflict over the provinces of Papua and West-
Papua and resources such as timber, gold, and copper between
indigenous Papuans and the government continued
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