Ambon Mayor Jopi Papilaja said here on Tuesday that the ANZAC Day commemoration in Ambon, Maluku, has yet to be reinstated this year because of technical considerations.
He said the technical considerations from various elements in the province had been conveyed to the Australian Embassy in Jakarta and to the government of Australia`s Northern Territorial city of Darwin as Ambon`s sister city.
"The Ambon city government in principle has facilitated the intention of the Australian government and other Commonwealth countries to observe the ANZAC Day in Ambon but because of technical considerations, it has yet to be reinstated," Papilaja said.
When war broke out in 1914, Australia had been a Federal Commonwealth for thirteen years.
In 1915, Australian and New Zealand soldiers formed part of an Allied expedition that set out to capture the Gallipoli Peninsula, under a plan by Winston Churchill to open the way to the Black Sea for the Allied navies.
The objective was to capture Istanbul, capital of the Ottoman Empire, an ally of Germany.
The ANZAC force landed at Gallipoli on 25 April, meeting fierce resistance from the Turkish Army commanded by Mustafa Kemal, later known as Ataturk.
At Kapahaha Commowealth Memorial Park in Srimau sub-district, Ambon, there are tombs of 1,092 Australian soldiers, 810 British soldiers, 186 Dutch soldiers 30 Indian soldiers, 2 Canadian soldiers, one New Zealand soldier, one South African soldier but 15 others are unknown.
The Commonwealth War Commission also erected Ambon Monument in the memorial park as the remembrance of 289 Australian soldiers and 171 aviators who were killed during the second world war in Maluku, Sulawesi, and other surrounding islands.
(Uu.O001/HAJM)
Editor: Priyambodo RH
Copyright © ANTARA 2011
