MARINA Rumakur had two choices: renounce her Christian faith and convert to Islam or be killed. "They told us we must convert or they would cut our throats," recalled the shy 14-year-old. Like hundreds of other Christians she fled into the jungle when her village on the tiny Indonesian island of Kesui was attacked by Islamic militants.
The threat to Marina’s life was genuine. Two teachers from a neighbouring village had already been beheaded when they refused to convert. "So we knew we had no choice."
Worse, however, was to come. More than 900 Christian men, women and children from all over Kesui were forced to submit to ritual circumcision as part of a campaign to purge the island of its entire Christian population.
The brutal forced conversions mark a new low in the religious war that has raged through Indonesia’s Spice Islands for the past two years, claiming the lives of more than 5,000 civilians. Christians say the the attacks on the village were led by the feared Laskar Jihad, the self-styled "holy warriors" who arrived here from Java last year to take up arms on behalf of their beleaguered Muslim brothers. As they descended on Karlomin village, the white-robed warriors let out a cry of "Allahu Akbar" or "God is Great", the trademark battle cry of the Laskar Jihad.
After surrendering, Marina and the other villagers were marched to a mosque in the Muslim village of Amarlaud where they were ordered to wash in preparation for conversion. The few belongings they had brought with them were searched, and their Bibles and prayer books were taken away and burned. Marina fought back tears as a small gold cross, her confirmation gift, was ripped from her neck.
Outside the mosque, warriors stood guard with rifles and spears as the Christians knelt and recited the simple prayer marking a convert’s entrance into the Islamic faith. Glancing up, some saw the barrel of a gun aimed straight at them as they stumbled through the unfamiliar words.
For the next week they were kept prisoner in the mosque as the imam observed them praying five times a day.
Despite that, they were told their performance had not been satisfactory and that they would have to undergo a further ceremony. No one dared ask what it entailed. Men and women were separated and led away to a curtained area at the side of the mosque. When Marina’s turn came, she was told to remove her lower clothing and made to sit in the lap of one Muslim woman while another performed the circumcision.
The rusty razor blade she used had already been used on several other women without being disinfected.
"The razor was covered in blood," Marina recounted. "I was trembling and crying so they told me to close my eyes." The women told her that the cut would be "no more painful that an ant bite." That turned out to be a lie.
"The blade was so blunt that they had to cut again and again. It was so painful that I cried out," said Marina softly, hiding her face with her hands. Her six-year-old sister, Emiliana, was the youngest to be circumcised. "It was worst for her because she is so little. She cried and cried from the pain."
Indonesia, home of Clinton's #1 foreign supporter Riady.