Intl youth groups cancelling Ambon visit
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Thu, 09/29/2011 5:55 PM
Several international delegations have backed out of a youth conference in Maluku following the deaths of seven people in a sectarian riot in Ambon two weeks ago.
Participants from the US, the UK, France and Italy have cancelled their visit, according to the National Committee of Indonesian Youth’s (KNPI) Maluku chapter.
Local chapter chairman Zahruddin Latuconsina said an additional 40 of 125 international delegates had not told organizers if they would attend the forum.
“We don’t know for sure how many delegates and how many countries will attend the event,” Zahruddin said on Thursday as quoted by kompas.com.
Despite the cancellations, Zahruddin said the conference would go on. “We will hold the conference even if only one delegate shows up.”
The meeting was important to restore the image of Maluku in the international community, Zahruddin said.
The riots, which killed seven people, were sparked by rumors that a Muslim motorcycle taxi driver who died in an accident was tortured to death by Christian.
Ambon was swept by Muslim-Christian conflict between 1999 and 2002, when thousands were killed and hundreds of thousands displaced throughout the Maluku Islands.
