The Maluku Islands or the Moluccas are an archipelago in the eastern part of Indonesia. Tectonically they are located on the Halmahera Plate within the Molucca Sea Collision Zone. Geographically they are located east of Sulawesi,west of New Guinea,and north and east of Timor. Lying within Wallacea,the Moluccas have been considered a geographical and cultural intersection of Asia and Oceania.
Seram is the largest and main island of Maluku province of Indonesia,despite Ambon Island's historical importance. It is located just north of the smaller Ambon Island and a few other adjacent islands,such as Saparua,Haruku,Nusa Laut and the Banda Islands.
Saparua is an island east of Ambon Island in the Indonesian province of Maluku;the island of Haruku lies between Saparua and Ambon. The main port is in the south at Kota Saparua. The small island of Maolana is located near its southwestern side and Nusa Laut off its southeastern tip.
Maluku is a province of Indonesia. It comprises the central and southern regions of the Maluku Islands. The largest city and capital of Maluku province is Ambon on the small Ambon Island. It is directly adjacent to North Maluku,Southwest Papua,and West Papua in the north,Central Sulawesi,and Southeast Sulawesi in the west,Banda Sea,Australia,East Timor and East Nusa Tenggara in the south and Arafura Sea,Central Papua and South Papua in the east. The land area is 57803.81 km2,and the total population of this province at the 2010 census was 1,533,506 people,rising to 1,848,923 at the 2020 census,the official estimate as at mid 2023 was 1,908,753. Maluku is located in Eastern Indonesia.
South Maluku,also South Moluccas,officially the Republic of South Maluku,is a former unrecognised secessionist republic that originally claimed the islands of Ambon,Buru,and Seram,which currently make up most of the Indonesian province of Maluku.
Thomas Matulessy,also known as Kapitan Pattimura or simply Pattimura,was a famous Ambonese soldier who became a symbol of both the Maluku and Indonesian struggle for independence,praised by President Sukarno and declared a national hero by President Suharto. He has several namesakes in both the Netherlands and in the Indonesian archipelago.
The Maluku Sovereignty Front is a secessionist movement on Ambon Island,aiming to restore the Republic of the South Moluccas (RMS). It was established on June 15,2000 at Ambon.
Dr. Christiaan Robbert Steven Soumokil was a South Moluccan politician and prosecutor who served as the second president of the Republic of South Maluku from 1950 until his execution in 1966 by Indonesian forces loyal to Suharto.
This article surveys the postage stamps and postal history of the Republic of South Moluccas. Historical or political incidents can be found in the main article.
Henry Stolow was a stamp dealer in Berlin,New York,and Munich who was behind the issue of numerous stamps of doubtful validity.
Johan Teterissa was a Moluccan elementary school teacher,activist and member of the Republic of the South Moluccas,or RMS,an active separatist group which advocates independence for the Maluku islands from Indonesia. Teterissa was sentenced to life in prison for treason in April 2008 after leading a nonviolent protest against Indonesian rule in 2007. Teterissa,and a group of 19 traditional Moluccan dancers,unfurled a secessionist flag of the banned South Moluccan Republic in front of Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on June 29,2007,in Ambon,the capital of Maluku. Amnesty International designated him a prisoner of conscience.
Buru people is an ethnic group mostly living on Indonesian island Buru,as well as on some other Maluku Islands. They also call themselves Gebfuka or Gebemliar,which literally means "people of the world" or "people of the land". Buru people are related to the eastern Indonesian anthropological group and from an ethnographic point of view are similar to other indigenous peoples of the island Buru. They speak the Buru language.
Ambelau or Ambalau is a volcanic island in the Banda Sea within Maluku Islands of Indonesia. The island forms an administrative district which is part of the South Buru Regency of Maluku province,Indonesia. It has a land area of 306 km2,and had a population of 6,846 at the 2010 Census;the official estimate as at mid 2023 was 9,225. The administrative center is Wailua,a settlement located at the south of the island. About half of the island's population is composed of indigenous Ambelau people who speak the Ambelau language;the other half are mostly immigrants from the nearby Maluku Islands and Java.
Nusa Laut is the smallest inhabited island in the Lease Islands group east of Ambon,in Indonesia's Maluku province. It lies just off the south-western corner of Saparua island,separated from it by a deep channel. The island's coasts are fringed by a drying reef.
The Lease Islands,formerly called the Uliasers or Uliassers,are a group of three inhabited islands,lying immediately to the south of Seram and east of Ambon Island in the province of Maluku,in Indonesia. The three inhabited islands,from west to east,are Haruku,Saparua and Nusa Laut,while tiny uninhabited Molana is administratively part of Saparua District;these islands constitute four administrative districts (kecamatan) within Central Maluku Regency.
The Moluccan diaspora refers to overseas Indonesians of Moluccan birth or descent living outside Indonesia. The most significant Moluccan diaspora community lives in the Netherlands,where it numbers c. 70,000 people as of 2018.
The Invasion of Ambon was a combined Indonesian military operation which aimed to seize and annex the self proclaimed Republic of South Maluku.
Johannes Latuharhary was an Indonesian politician and nationalist of Moluccan descent,who served as the first Indonesian governor of Maluku from 1945 until 1955,though he did not assume office in Maluku until 1950. A Protestant Christian,Latuharhary was an early proponent of Moluccan inclusion in the Indonesian state and he was an active participant in the struggle for Indonesia's independence.
John Wattilete is the fifth and incumbent president in exile of the Republic of South Maluku and has been in office since 2010. He was preceded by Frans Tutuhatunewa.
