ABC AUSTRALIA, 27/04/2004 11:18:38
US travel warning for eastern Indonesian island of Ambon
The United States has issued a travel warning for the eastern Indonesian city of
Ambon in Maluku province.
The State Department is advising Americans to consider leaving the province, where
23 people have died and 300 homes have been torched in sectarian violence.
The advisory includes the provinces of Maluku, North Maluku, Sulawesi, Papua and
West Timor.
The latest violence is the most significant threat to a peace accord, that has held for
more than two years, and was reached after earlier fighting killed 5,000 people in the
Maluku province.
It follows a banned parade by mainly Christian separatists of the Maluku Sovereignty
Front to mark the 54th anniversary of the proclamation of a self-styled South Maluku
Republic.
An airport official says some 200 paramilitary police reinforcements have been flown in
from Jakarta.
27/04/2004 11:18:38 | ABC Radio Australia News
© 2001 Australian Broadcasting Corporation |
