| South Moluccas |
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The South Moluccas consists of about 150 islands in the Banda Sea . The main islands are Ceram , Ambon and Buru . The people of the South Moluccas are mainly Melanesia ns, numbering about one million. SOUTH MOLUCCAS REPUBLIC The South Moluccas, or ''Republik Maluku Selatan'' (RMS), was a self-proclaimed Republic in the Maluku Islands , founded April 25 , 1950 . Formerly part of the Dutch East Indies , a colony of the Netherlands , the state declared independence from the United States of Indonesia as a response to the intent of the Javanese General Sukarno to consolidate the proposed United States of Indonesia under the control of a unitary government. The Moluccans expected that the unitary state would be dominated by the Javanese , and particularly the Javanese leader Sukarno . The territory was reintegrated into Indonesia in November 1950 . An occupation by Indonesian troops lasting several years resulted in the flight of the RMS government from the islands, and the formation of a Government In Exile in the Netherlands . The first president in exile was Prof. Johan Manusama . Dr. Chr. R. S. Soumokil was the RMS president in 1954 who went into hiding on Ceram island. He was captured by the Indonesian Army in Ceram on December 2 , 1962 , and was brought to trial before a military tribune in Jakarta . He was sentenced to death and was executed under President Suharto 's rule on April 12 , 1966 . The government-in-exile continues to exist, with Frans Tutuhatunewa as head of state. However, in their exile, this group has committed some terror attacks which caused the Dutch government to withdraw their support. The confirmed attack, was in 1978, when the group took 70 civilians hostage inside a Dutch government building in Assen. During 1970, other similiar attacks targeted on the Dutch by Moluccan secessionist groups, lent credence to the idea that perhaps the South Moluccan Suicide Commando group was an alias (or at least a close ally) of other groups such as the Free South Moluccan Youths, who seized control of a train and took 38 hostages in 1975, or an unidentified Moluccan secessionist group that simultaneously took 100 hostages at a school and 50 more on a train in 1978. THE PEOPLE The South Moluccan people are predominantly Christian , unlike the rest of Indonesia which is overwhelmingly Muslim . The South Moluccan Republic, however, was also supported by some Moluccan Muslims in the region at that time. Today, while the majority of Christians on the Moluccas do not support separatism, the memory of the RMS and its separatist objectives still resonates in Indonesia, and Moluccan Christians, lately during the chaos in Moluccas, are accused by Muslim groups of having independence as their goal. This accusation has been useful in galvanizing Muslims to fight (Jihad), and the situation has not been aided by the fact that some diaspora Moluccan Christian groups have taken up the RMS banner. In the Moluccas agreement in Malino (Malino II), signed to end conflict and create peace in the Moluccas, Moluccans claimed "to reject and oppose all kinds of separatist movements, among others the Republic of South Moluccas (RMS), that threaten the unity and sovereignty of the Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia" EXTERNAL LINKS
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