Conquering with love

FOR A BISHOP whose diocese has descended into full-scale interreligious bloodshed, the diminutive Bishop Petrus Kanisius Mandagi seems surprisingly calm and collected.
But his plea is urgent:the international community must help evacuate the entire Christian population of his diocese in Indonesia's Molucca islands to prevent Islamic militants slaughtering them.
"The aim of the jihad or holy war is to kill or drive out all the Christians," he declares starkly. He is also urging foreign governments and churches to pressure the Indonesian government to stop the conflict, something he believes is well within their power. "The government could remove from the Moluccas the jihad fighters who are attacking Christians and force the military to be properly neutral, rather than fighting on the side of the Islamic militants."
The bishop's third plea is for pressure on the Indonesian government to allow international observers to travel to Ambon and the other islands immediately to investigate what is happening and especially to investigate the role of the military in the attacks on Christians.
Bishop Mandagi – together with two Protestant colleagues – brought his message to government and church leaders in Geneva, London and Brussels in a whirlwind tour last month organised by the World Council of Churches and Christian Solidarity Worldwide. Even while he was travelling, his assistant bishop Joseph Tethool reported further bloody attacks in which eight Christians were killed and the Protestant church of Sejahtera was burnt down.
"Trouble started on 19 January 1999," Bishop
Mandagi declared in an interview in London. "I remember the exact day. The Muslims were celebrating the feast of Id al Fitt The conflict started in a simple clash between a Christian taxi driver and a Muslim who lives by begging from drivers."
Few people were around as it was a religious day. When the beggar insisted he should be given money the driver got angry and tried to hit the man, who then ran off to the Muslim section of town. "The man told everyone that he had been attacked by the Christians. Then the riots exploded."
The violence against the Christians — who make up about half the two million-strong population of the Molucca islands — has been indiscriminate. An estimated 4,000 Christians have been killed sinceJanuary 1999. "The jihad fighters have attacked all Christian churches and Christians," Bishop Mandagi notes sadly. "Christians are under attack on 15 of the thousand islands of the Moluccas."
Although Catholics were generally spared as the antiChristian violence began – out of respect for the good work they did in schools and hospitals which are open to Christians and Muslims alike – BishopMandagi reports that Catholics are now in the firing line as well. He shares the view of many local Christians that the current clashes are being stoked by outsiders, the more than 5,000 Muslim militants brought in from elsewhere in Indonesia to wage jihad, a holy war, against Christians.
"There is one particular group, Laskar Jihad (Jihad Fighters), which is highly organised and well armed. Such militants receive support from Iran and Libya. They are behind the riots in Ambon. Since they arrived several months ago the attacks on Christians have escalated.' The jihad fighters have reportedly brought large supplies of weapons to the islands in containers. The bishop believes the military and many of the cronies of former president Suharto are stoking the conflict, giving logistical and moral support to the jihad warriors.
"The Suharto cronies are aiming to create instability in Indonesia so that they might be able to regain power, while the military, especially the army, are feeling ignored now they have been eased out of a position of authority underthe new president Abdurrahman Wahid."
Bishop Mandagi has told his flock that violence is not the right response to the attacks. "I always tell them that violence cannot solve violence. We have to build dialogue, especially with the Muslims. I always tell them we don't fight for Christianity, for Catholicism. We have to fight for humanity." He argues that as followers of Christ, his people must respect others, listen to them and seek peaceful solutions to the conflict. "This is not so easy," he admits. The toll on the people and infrastructure of the diocese has been devastating.
"More than 67 buildings have been attacked and totally destroyed," Bishop Mandagi reports. "Churches, houses, schools and presbyteries have been burnt down."
Protestants too have seen their churches and institutions destroyed. Although he has stood in the ruins of his burnt out churches many times — and is clearly saddened at the memory — his focus is elsewhere. "To me a destroyed church is not important. You can restore buildings. It is much more important that you don't take revenge. We can't be saved by church buildings but by love, loving each other regardless of the state of the other."
Bishop Mandagi believes the priority for the diocese right now is not rebuilding the churches but tending to the people's current urgent needs. "I care for the displaced people, for children who have no education because the schools have stopped. I do not care for the buildings but for the suffering people."
Tens of thousands have fled to the hills to escape the attacks, where they lack food and medicine. "They are desperate." Although "fortunately" no church workers have so far been killed in the fighting, the bishop reports that one nun was among the more than 500 Christians who died when an overcrowded boat crammed with refugees from the fighting sank off Ambon in June. "The sister was accompanying wounded people who were on their way to a hospital."
BISHOP MANDAGI is especially saddened by the fighting as Christian/Muslim relations in the Moluccas have traditionally been good. "There was a special relationship, but the militants have destroyed this harmony."
He believes the local Muslim population has itself suffered from the influx of militants. "The local Muslims are desperate. They have asked us to tell the president to remove the militants. They are threatened by them too, and many of them have fled."
The bishop regrets what he sees as the militants' misuse of their own faith to justify their violence. "It is against their religion, but the Islamic fighters nevertheless use religion to promote their own interests. They don't even listen to their own Islamic scholars."
Will he remain in Ambon, despite the danger? Bishop Mandagi does not hesitate. "I have to be with my people. If the Christians leave, I will follow. I'll be the last."
What of the forty clergy and one hundred sisters of his diocese? "My priests and sisters also are committed. We must first protect our people, and only then ourselves," he declares simply. "If we have to die it is a consequence of our calling."