The impression that one gets on meeting the self-styled president of the South Maluku Republic, F.L.J. Tutuhatunewa, is of a grandpa in the twilight of his life. Married to a bosomy, cheery Dutch woman, Inge Walther, Tutuhatunewa lives in a small three-room apartment on the western edge of Rotterdam—minus the guards and protocol befitting a head of state.

Life for the 78-year old doctor is not dull. Tutuhatunewa still opens his practice da