General information
Type of Incompatibility: Not applicable
Date of first battle related death: 1999-01-19
Date of conflict reached 25 battle releated deaths: 1999-01-20
Comment on conflict reached 25 battle releated deaths: The non-state conflict between the Christians (Indonesia) and Muslims (Indonesia) of Indonesia is first included in UCDP data in 1999. In January that year riots in Ambon town, in the Maluku Islands, resulted in more than 25 battle-related deaths.
Annual information
This section contains annual information systematically collected by the UCDP.
1997
Primary Parties: -
Dimension: Non-State
| Estimated Fatalities | |
|---|---|
| High | 0 |
| Best | 0 |
| Low | 0 |
Numbers include fatalities for all dyads both active and inactive for this year
1998
Primary Parties: -
Dimension: Non-State
| Estimated Fatalities | |
|---|---|
| High | 0 |
| Best | 0 |
| Low | 0 |
Numbers include fatalities for all dyads both active and inactive for this year
1999
Primary Parties: Christians (Indonesia) - Muslims (Indonesia)
Dimension: Non-State
| Estimated Fatalities | |
|---|---|
| High | 1509 |
| Best | 1120 |
| Low | 653 |
Numbers include fatalities for all dyads both active and inactive for this year
2000
Primary Parties: Christians (Indonesia) - Muslims (Indonesia)
Dimension: Non-State
| Estimated Fatalities | |
|---|---|
| High | 493 |
| Best | 493 |
| Low | 468 |
Numbers include fatalities for all dyads both active and inactive for this year
2001
Primary Parties: Christians (Indonesia) - Muslims (Indonesia)
Dimension: Non-State
| Estimated Fatalities | |
|---|---|
| High | 55 |
| Best | 55 |
| Low | 39 |
Numbers include fatalities for all dyads both active and inactive for this year
2002
Primary Parties: Christians (Indonesia) - Muslims (Indonesia)
Dimension: Non-State
| Estimated Fatalities | |
|---|---|
| High | 26 |
| Best | 26 |
| Low | 22 |
Numbers include fatalities for all dyads both active and inactive for this year
2003
Primary Parties: -
Dimension: Non-State
| Estimated Fatalities | |
|---|---|
| High | 0 |
| Best | 0 |
| Low | 0 |
Numbers include fatalities for all dyads both active and inactive for this year
2004
Primary Parties: Christians (Indonesia) - Muslims (Indonesia)
Dimension: Non-State
| Estimated Fatalities | |
|---|---|
| High | 56 |
| Best | 49 |
| Low | 40 |
Numbers include fatalities for all dyads both active and inactive for this year
2005
Primary Parties: -
Dimension: Non-State
| Estimated Fatalities | |
|---|---|
| High | 0 |
| Best | 0 |
| Low | 0 |
Numbers include fatalities for all dyads both active and inactive for this year
2006
Primary Parties: -
Dimension: Non-State
| Estimated Fatalities | |
|---|---|
| High | 0 |
| Best | 0 |
| Low | 0 |
Numbers include fatalities for all dyads both active and inactive for this year
2011
Primary Parties: -
Dimension: Non-State
| Estimated Fatalities | |
|---|---|
| High | 7 |
| Best | 7 |
| Low | 7 |
Numbers include fatalities for all dyads both active and inactive for this year
2015
Primary Parties: -
Dimension: Non-State
| Estimated Fatalities | |
|---|---|
| High | 0 |
| Best | 0 |
| Low | 0 |
Numbers include fatalities for all dyads both active and inactive for this year
2017
Primary Parties: -
Dimension: Non-State
| Estimated Fatalities | |
|---|---|
| High | 0 |
| Best | 0 |
| Low | 0 |
Numbers include fatalities for all dyads both active and inactive for this year
2018
Primary Parties: -
Dimension: Non-State
| Estimated Fatalities | |
|---|---|
| High | 0 |
| Best | 0 |
| Low | 0 |
Numbers include fatalities for all dyads both active and inactive for this year
2020
Primary Parties: -
Dimension: Non-State
| Estimated Fatalities | |
|---|---|
| High | 0 |
| Best | 0 |
| Low | 0 |
Numbers include fatalities for all dyads both active and inactive for this year
Conflict Archive
This section contains annual information no longer systematically collected by the UCDP.
1997 Conflict Archive
Terminated: NO
1998 Conflict Archive
Terminated: NO
1999 Conflict Archive
Comment on Activity: Violence ignited as a result of a relatively minor incident in Ambon town on 19 January 1999, the day of Eid Al-Fitr, one of Islam’s holiest days. Riots in the lower-class sections of Ambon quickly spread out, engulfing towns and villages around the Maluku Islands. By late August, extremely violent riots and attacks on positions belonging to members of the other religion were commonplace occurrences throughout the Maluku islands.
Comment on Yearly Battle Related Deaths: The total number of deaths resulting directly from the Christian-Muslim sectarian violence is extremely difficult to ascertain with any precision. While most published death-tolls for the Maluku conflict range from between 2000 and 9000 dead, these figures include deaths as resulting from actions by security forces. Thus, as these figures do not fit the criteria set by UCDP, they cannot be included in UCDP estimates. The figures used by UCDP only include deaths clearly attributable to the sectarian conflict between Muslims and Christians of the Maluku Island, based on UCDPs coding of individual events taking place in the Maluku Islands in 1999.
Terminated: NO
2000 Conflict Archive
Comment on Activity: Sectarian fighting continued on patterns similar to those recorded in 2000. Violent riots in towns and villages were complemented by assaults on places inhabited by people of the other religion.
By early 2000 the Indonesian government began taking full interest in the conflict. After visits by high-ranking officials in the area, a state of civil emergency was imposed in June 2000, to allow the military to intervene in the area, imposing curfews, martial law and military policing.
However, besides the government, fundamentalist groups from other parts of Indonesia got engaged in the sectarian conflict. The largest of these, Laskar Jihad, a fundamentalist Ahle Hadith group, left Java with more than 2000 militants in the early months of 2000, with a stated goal of ‘helping Muslims’ in the Maluku. Besides directly engaging in targeting Christians (covered in the One Sided Violence section of the UCDP database), the Laskar Jihad armed, trained and helped organize fighters from the local Muslim communities.
Comment on Yearly Battle Related Deaths: The total number of deaths resulting directly from the Christian-Muslim sectarian violence is extremely difficult to ascertain with any precision. While most published death-tolls for the Maluku conflict range from between 2000 and 9000 dead, these figures include deaths as resulting from actions by security forces or by various other non-state actors such as Laskar Jihad. Thus, as these figures do not fit the criteria set by UCDP, they cannot be included in UCDP estimates. The figures used by UCDP only include deaths clearly attributable to the sectarian conflict between Muslims and Christians of the Maluku Island, based on UCDPs coding of individual events taking place in the Maluku Islands in 2000. UCDP also includes deaths directly attributable to other groups (Laskar Jihad) operating in the Maluku Islands in 2000 in the One Sided Violence section.
Terminated: NO
2001 Conflict Archive
Terminated: NO
2002 Conflict Archive
Terminated: NO
2003 Conflict Archive
Terminated: NO
2004 Conflict Archive
Terminated: NO
2005 Conflict Archive
Terminated: NO
2006 Conflict Archive
Terminated: NO
2011 Conflict Archive
Terminated: NO
2015 Conflict Archive
Terminated: NO
2017 Conflict Archive
Terminated: NO
2018 Conflict Archive
Terminated: NO
2020 Conflict Archive
Terminated: NO
