Religious violence in Indonesia, which has created a mass of refugees in the region since January 1999, is again worsening, says Pastor Reinhold Kesaulya, president of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in east Indonesia.

Kesaulya cites action by Muslim militants as well as the failure of local and national officials to stop the sectarian violence as the main causes of the rapidly deteriorating situation, which has left an estimated 3,000 Christians dead and thousands more homeless.

Kesaulya reports that at least 15 Adventists have been killed in the violence and 12 churches have been burned, along with 55 homes of church members. “[Adventists] can no longer stay in their villages,” says Kesaulya. “They have to go to stay in the jungle” or try to leave the region for the safer province of Manado.

Almost every aspect of the Adventist Church work in the region is under siege, says Kesaulya. Fighting near Maluku Academy in Ambon, which until recently was considered a safe haven, has forced the school to close and its teachers and students have all fled, he says.

“Only the members that live quite near their church are able to come to services,” says Kesaulya, and due to safety concerns, “no meetings can be held in the evenings.” He adds that the church’s publishing department has been decimated by the fact that colporteurs, or book-sellers, can no longer visit houses to sell books.

The safety of church workers and members can no longer be guaranteed in Ambon or Central Sulawesi, says Kesaulya, and many pastors have been relocated. He says that the Adventist Church president in Maluku is staying in Ambon to minister to the remaining church members in the area, although his wife has been evacuated.

Street fighting and night attacks on the homes of Christians continue, while sniper fire in the streets has become another security problem in recent months.  “No one knows where these people are getting their weapons,” says Kesaulya, who notes that the number of machine guns being used is increasing.

Kesaulya says that church leaders are trying to keep the churches running as normally as possible under the circumstances.  But finances are stretched with virtually no tithe or offerings coming in from the troubled regions. There is also the added financial strain of evacuating church workers and providing basic food and shelter for some 1,000 Adventist refugees who have congregated near the church headquarters in Manado, Sulawesi Utara.  Manado is “about the only area left untouched” by the violence, says Kesaulya.

Looking ahead, Kesaulya believes that the long-term resettlement of refugees is one of the most pressing problems facing church leaders in the region.  He is hoping that land in Manado can be obtained where church members can begin growing crops to support themselves, but says that even if this is possible, the church members in Manado will have to continue supporting the refugees with necessities for at least four months until the crops mature.  Kesaulya, who has taken ten refugees into his own home, says that many Adventists in Manado are involved in helping to care for those of other Christian churches who have fled the violence.

Dr. John Graz, public affairs and religious liberty director for the Seventh-day Adventist Church worldwide, has written to Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid asking the government to renew its efforts to bring “peace and harmony for the good of all citizens, no matter what their religion.”  Graz has also written about the situation to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on religious intolerance.