Johan Teterisa - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Johan Teterisa is an Indonesia

Indonesia

Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...

n elementary school

Elementary school

An elementary school or primary school is an institution where children receive the first stage of compulsory education known as elementary or primary education. Elementary school is the preferred term in some countries, particularly those in North America, where the terms grade school and grammar...

teacher

Teacher

A teacher or schoolteacher is a person who provides education for pupils and students . The role of teacher is often formal and ongoing, carried out at a school or other place of formal education. In many countries, a person who wishes to become a teacher must first obtain specified professional...

, activist and member of the Republic of the South Moluccas, or RMS, a small separatist group which advocates independence

Independence

Independence is a condition of a nation, country, or state in which its residents and population, or some portion thereof, exercise self-government, and usually sovereignty, over its territory....

for the southern Maluku

Maluku Islands

The Maluku Islands are an archipelago that is part of Indonesia, and part of the larger Maritime Southeast Asia region. Tectonically they are located on the Halmahera Plate within the Molucca Sea Collision Zone...

islands from Indonesia

Indonesia

. Teterisa was sentenced to life in prison for treason

Treason

In law, treason is the crime that covers some of the more extreme acts against one's sovereign or nation. Historically, treason also covered the murder of specific social superiors, such as the murder of a husband by his wife. Treason against the king was known as high treason and treason against a...

in April 2008 after leading a nonviolent protest against Indonesian rule in 2007. Teterisa, and a group of 19 traditional Moluccan dancers, unfurled a secessionist flag of the banned South Moluccan Republic in front of Indonesian President

President of Indonesia

The President of the Republic of Indonesia is the head of state and the head of government of the Republic of Indonesia.The first president was Sukarno and the current president is Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.- Sukarno era :...

Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono

Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono AC , is an Indonesian politician and retired Army general officer who has been President of Indonesia since 2004....

on June 29, 2007, in Ambon, the capital of Maluku.

The RSM is an outlawed separatist group which was formed during the 1950s. The RMS is a mainly Christian

Christianity in Indonesia

Christianity in Indonesia is the country's second-largest religion, after Islam. About 7% of the population of Indonesia are Protestants, 3% are Catholics, with around 86% Muslims.-Distribution:...

group which was originally set up to support the continued rule of the Moluccas by the Netherlands

Dutch East Indies

The Dutch East Indies was a Dutch colony that became modern Indonesia following World War II. It was formed from the nationalised colonies of the Dutch East India Company, which came under the administration of the Netherlands government in 1800....

. The RMS is also known as the Republik Maluku Selatan, South Moluccan Republic or the South Maluku Republic, depending on the translation.

2007 Ambon Protest

Teterisa is reported to have first joined the RMS in 2002 in his home village of Aboru, which is located in Central Maluku

Maluku Islands

. Teterisa, who is an elementary school

Elementary school

teacher

Teacher

by profession, had been arrested and given a lenient sentence in the past for a similar flag waving demonstration in 2003.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono had arrived in Ambon, the capital of Maluku province, on June 29, 2007, to preside over an official ceremony marking National Family Day. A group of RMS protesters, led by Teterisa, peacefully disrupted the ceremony while President Yudhoyono was attending the event. The group of nineteen men, who were led by Teterisa, performed a traditional Moluccan war dance

War dance

A war dance is a dance involving mock combat, usually in reference to tribal warrior societies where such dances were performed as a ritual connected with endemic warfare....

and then unfurled the secessionist flag

Flag

A flag is a piece of fabric with a distinctive design that is usually rectangular and used as a symbol, as a signaling device, or decoration. The term flag is also used to refer to the graphic design employed by a flag, or to its depiction in another medium.The first flags were used to assist...

of the banned South Moluccan Republic (RMS). Teterisa and the other protesters were immediately arrested.

Presidential aides to Yudhoyono described the President as "livid" over the flag waving protest. The Indonesian military and government blamed the National Intelligence Agency (BIN) for not anticipating a possible protest at the ceremony. The incident was considered to be a major embarrassment to the government of Indonesia. The protests prompted the government to remove and replace the Maluku provincial military

Military

A military is an organization authorized by its greater society to use lethal force, usually including use of weapons, in defending its country by combating actual or perceived threats. The military may have additional functions of use to its greater society, such as advancing a political agenda e.g...

and police chiefs.

Trial

Johan Teterisa was convicted of "plotting against the state" and sentenced to life in prison on April 3, 2008 in the provincial capital city of Ambon by the Ambon District Court. Teterisa's life sentence is the maximum punishment for treason

Treason

allowed under Indonesia's Criminal Code

Criminal Code

A criminal code is a document which compiles all, or a significant amount of, a particular jurisdiction's criminal law...

. Teterisa, who was 46 years old at the time of his sentencing, was reported to have broken down and cried as the guilty verdict

Verdict

In law, a verdict is the formal finding of fact made by a jury on matters or questions submitted to the jury by a judge. The term, from the Latin veredictum, literally means "to say the truth" and is derived from Middle English verdit, from Anglo-Norman: a compound of ver and dit In law, a verdict...

and life sentence was handed down, according to Antara, Indonesia's state run news service

News agency

A news agency is an organization of journalists established to supply news reports to news organizations: newspapers, magazines, and radio and television broadcasters. Such an agency may also be referred to as a wire service, newswire or news service.-History:The oldest news agency is Agence...

. Teterisa told the Ambon judges that he had acted on the orders of Simon Saiya, the leader of the RMS who is wanted by Indonesian authorities. In their sentencing the judges told Teterisa that he had "embarrassed the people of Indonesia in the eyes of the world." They also told Teterisa that, as leader of the protest, his sentence was particularly harsh because he had shown no remorse for his actions.

Teterisa's life sentence for treason is believed to show the government of Indonesia's extreme sensitivity to separatist movements across the country, which consists of a sprawling archipelago

Archipelago

An archipelago , sometimes called an island group, is a chain or cluster of islands. The word archipelago is derived from the Greek ἄρχι- – arkhi- and πέλαγος – pélagos through the Italian arcipelago...

of nearly 18,000 islands.

Indonesian court official Amin Syafrudin said that another 19 RSM activists had been convicted of treason chargers and sentenced to prison terms ranging from 10 to 20 years for their part in the June 2007 protests. They included Abraham Saiya, who was sentenced to 15 years in jail on April 3, 2008 for participating in the flag-waving demonstration. Four other Moluccan separatists were given similar prison sentences in March 2008 for displaying or possessing the RMS flag

Flag

, which is banned in Indonesia.

Reaction

Human rights

Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...

activists condemned Teterisa's life sentence for a nonviolent protest as excessive. Antonius Sujata, a former Indonesian deputy attorney general

Attorney General

In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general, or attorney-general, is the main legal advisor to the government, and in some jurisdictions he or she may also have executive responsibility for law enforcement or responsibility for public prosecutions.The term is used to refer to any person...

, called Teterisa's punishment, "emotional, political and nonsense." Sujata also told the media that, "The man only waved a flag and did not try to harm the President."

Asmara Nababan, who is the former secretary-general

Secretary-General

-International intergovernmental organizations:-International nongovernmental organizations:-Sports governing bodies:...

of the Indonesian National Commission on Human Rights told the media that the judges overreacted to the incident in their sentencing, as Teterisa's protest was nonviolent. "The judges should have deemed his action more as a political aspiration than a life-threatening act. He only waved an RMS flag, and did not carry a weapon."

Critics also pointed out that no separatists who took up arms against the government from two of Indonesia's more well known independence movements, Aceh

Aceh

Aceh is a special region of Indonesia, located on the northern tip of the island of Sumatra. Its full name is Daerah Istimewa Aceh , Nanggroë Aceh Darussalam and Aceh . Past spellings of its name include Acheh, Atjeh and Achin...

and Papua

Papua (Indonesian province)

Papua comprises most of the western half of the island of New Guinea and nearby islands. Its capital is Jayapura. It's the largest and easternmost province of Indonesia. The province originally covered the entire western half of New Guinea...

, have not been sentenced as harshly as Teterisa, who performed a nonviolent act. Many Papuan secessionist

Western New Guinea

West Papua informally refers to the Indonesian western half of the island of New Guinea and other smaller islands to its west. The region is officially administered as two provinces: Papua and West Papua. The eastern half of New Guinea is Papua New Guinea.The population of approximately 3 million...

have avoided prosecution by handing over their weapons to government authorities. A number of Acehnese fighters

Free Aceh Movement

The Free Aceh Movement , also known as the Aceh Sumatra National Liberation Front , was a separatist group seeking independence for the Aceh region of Sumatra from Indonesia. GAM fought against Indonesian government forces in the Aceh Insurgency from 1976 to 2005, costing over 15,000 lives...

were released as part of a peace agreement in 2005

Insurgency in Aceh

The insurgency in Aceh was waged by the Free Aceh Movement between 1976 and 2005 in order to obtain independence from Indonesia. Destruction caused by the armed conflicts and 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake brought a peace deal and an end to the insurgency....

Moluccas conflict background information

The Moluccas, which were once known as the Spice Islands, are now commonly known by their Indonesian name, Maluku

Maluku Islands

. The islands are located approximately 1400 miles (2,253.1 km) east of the national capital of Jakarta

Jakarta

Jakarta is the capital and largest city of Indonesia. Officially known as the Special Capital Territory of Jakarta, it is located on the northwest coast of Java, has an area of , and a population of 9,580,000. Jakarta is the country's economic, cultural and political centre...

. The Moluccas, who are populated by roughly even numbers of Christians

Christianity in Indonesia

Christianity in Indonesia is the country's second-largest religion, after Islam. About 7% of the population of Indonesia are Protestants, 3% are Catholics, with around 86% Muslims.-Distribution:...

and Muslims

Islam in Indonesia

Islam is the dominant religion in Indonesia, which also has a larger Muslim population than any other country in the world, with approximately 202.9 million identified as Muslim as of 2009....

, were plagued by inter-religoius violence between the two groups from 1999 to 2002. Indonesia is the world's largest Muslim country, though Christians form the a majority of the population in some eastern areas of the country, such as Maluku

Maluku Islands

, West Papua

Western New Guinea

, Flores

Flores

Flores is one of the Lesser Sunda Islands, an island arc with an estimated area of 14,300 km² extending east from the Java island of Indonesia. The population was 1.831.000 in the 2010 census and the largest town is Maumere. Flores is Portuguese for "flowers".Flores is located east of Sumbawa...

and parts of Sulawesi

Sulawesi

Sulawesi is one of the four larger Sunda Islands of Indonesia and is situated between Borneo and the Maluku Islands. In Indonesia, only Sumatra, Borneo, and Papua are larger in territory, and only Java and Sumatra have larger Indonesian populations.- Etymology :The Portuguese were the first to...

.

The RMS was formed in the 1950s following Indonesia's independence from the Netherlands. It is known by its Indonesian acronym, RMS, which stands for Republik Maluku Selatan. The RMS and its leadership were Dutch loyalists made up predominantly of Moluccan Christians, but included some Muslim members within its ranks.

The group declared an independent country, known as the Republic of the South Moluccas, or Republik Maluku Selatan (RMS), April 25, 1950. The RMS was soon defeated by the Indonesian military, and its leadership fled to the Netherlands, the former colonial ruler of Indonesia and the Moluccas

Dutch East Indies

. It briefly set up a government in exile

Government in exile

A government in exile is a political group that claims to be a country's legitimate government, but for various reasons is unable to exercise its legal power, and instead resides in a foreign country. Governments in exile usually operate under the assumption that they will one day return to their...

. The RMS has kept a relatively low profile since the 1970s, when it was blamed for a series of terrorist attacks within the Netherlands, including the 1975 Dutch train hostage crisis

1975 Dutch train hostage crisis

On December 2, 1975, seven South Moluccan terrorists seized a train with about 50 passengers on board in open countryside near the village of Wijster, halfway between Hoogeveen and Beilen in the northern part of the Netherlands. The hijacking lasted for 12 days and three hostages were killed.The...

in Wijster

Wijster

Wijster is a town in the Dutch province of Drenthe. It is a part of the municipality of Midden-Drenthe, and lies about 11 km north of Hoogeveen.In 2001, the town of Wijster had 462 inhabitants...

.

The RMS was largely forgotten in both Indonesia and worldwide until the eruption of violence between Christians and Muslims throughout the Moluccas in 1999. The violence between the two religious groups, which spread across many of the islands, killed over 9,000 people and displaced thousands more. The Muslim side of the conflict took to calling their Christian opponents "separatists," which gave legitimacy to their cause among Indonesia's mostly Muslim leadership and media. However, an overwhelming majority of Moluccan Christians say that they do not want a separate country from Indonesia. The sectarian violence

Sectarian violence

Sectarian violence and/or sectarian strife is violence inspired by sectarianism, that is, between different sects of one particular mode of ideology or religion within a nation/community...

largely ended after 2002, but conflict continues to flare up sporadically.

Analysts say that the RMS poses little threat to the territorial integrity of Indonesia and presently has little support among the Moluccan population. The RMS, which is much diminished from its height in the 1950s, has continued to wage a low-key, mostly nonviolent independence movement against the government, which include small nonviolent demonstrations such as the incident in which Teterisa convicted for treason.

The government of Indonesia regards all separatist movements, large and small, as a potential threat to national unity.

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