The South Maluku Republic (Republik Maluku Selatan or RMS) is an Indonesian Christian separatist group that seeks independence for the Maluku (Molucca) Islands province in eastern Indonesia.  Although Indonesia is around 90% Muslim, Christians make up about half the population in Maluku.  The history of Christian-Muslim fighting in Maluku stretches back hundreds of years, and it is from this violence that the South Maluku Republic group has emerged. <P><br /><br />Under Dutch colonial rule, the Christian population of Maluku was favored, but the tide quickly turned after Indonesia gained independence following World War II.  In 1950, Christian separatists attempted to establish the independent "South Maluku Republic," but the rebels were quickly crushed by Indonesian armed forces, and the separatist movement was banned.  Tensions between Muslims and Christians in Maluku have been strained ever since.  The Maluku Islands were a single province until 1999, when the province split into a majority Muslim "North Maluku" province, and a second province in South Maluku, now simply referred to as Maluku.   <P><br /><br />Since the late 1990s, violence and rioting has killed thousands of Christians and Muslims in Maluku, despite repeated attempts by the Indonesian government to broker an end to the conflict.  Destroyed in the 1950s, the new RMS group reemerged in 1998 in the wake of renewed sectarian violence.  The RMS can best be described as a gang of Christian extremists who have adopted the name of a long-extinct independence movement to lend credibility to their organization.  Although the RMS is clearly fighting for an independent Christian Maluku state, it is difficult to distinguish between RMS actions and general Christian-Muslim violence.  To that end, the RMS has been blamed for numerous small bombing attacks and other terrorist events in Maluku, but it is unclear whether these events were sanctioned by the RMS or simply an outgrowth of sectarian strife in Maluku.  In a more significant event, the RMS is suspected of bombing the Maluku Governor's office in spring 2002, killing four people and wounding 63 others. <br />