Ambon
The Old Capital Of The Spice Islands And A Wartime POW Camp; A City That Tore Itself Apart Along Religious Lines Between 1999 And 2002 And Has Spent Two Decades Putting Itself Back Together · Ambon, Maluku
Ambon was the Dutch administrative centre of the SPICE ISLANDS, and its forts and street names still say so. TWO LATER THINGS MATTER MORE. IN THE SECOND WORLD WAR IT WAS A PRISONER OF WAR CAMP and the site of the LAHA MASSACRE, in which several hundred Australian and Dutch prisoners were executed in 1942; of the Allied prisoners held on Ambon very few came home, and the AUSTRALIAN WAR CEMETERY on the edge of town is where most visitors end up standing longest. AND BETWEEN 1999 AND 2002 THE CITY TORE ITSELF APART - communal violence between Christians and Muslims that killed thousands across Maluku and drove hundreds of thousands from their homes, splitting Ambon into segregated districts along religious lines. THE RECONCILIATION SINCE HAS BEEN REAL AND LOCALLY LED, and it is still spoken of carefully - let people raise it rather than asking about it, and listen rather than pressing for detail.
Ambon, Maluku, Ambon, Maluku, Indonesia
AMBON HAS FLIGHTS from Jakarta, Makassar and Surabaya and is the hub for eastern Maluku - including the PELNI FERRY AND SMALL AIRCRAFT TO THE BANDA ISLANDS, both of which run on limited and frequently disrupted schedules. THE AUSTRALIAN WAR CEMETERY at Tantui is open in daylight, free, and maintained; it asks only the quiet any war cemetery does. THE SIWALIMA MUSEUM keeps daytime hours and closes Mondays. FORT AMSTERDAM at Hila and the other fort remains are open sites with small local charges. NATSEPA BEACH is a public beach busiest at weekends. THE CITY IS MIXED CHRISTIAN AND MUSLIM and both calendars affect opening hours - Christmas, Easter, Ramadan and Eid are all significant here in a way they are not in most Indonesian cities.