ABSTRACT
On a day when most Indonesians were still celebrating the national Day of Independence, two ethnic communities began fighting in the area of Malifut. Two months later, an entire sub-district lay in ruins, its population displaced. By the end of the year, political and religious tensions reached their apogee as thousands of militia members fought in different areas of the province. For the next six months North Maluku was paralyzed, the security forces abandoning entire swathes of the archipelago to the violent campaigns of religious militias.
