LAKSAMANA.Net, April 27, 2004 05:31 PM
Snipers Kill Police, Death Toll Hits 29
Laksamana.Net - Snipers on Tuesday (27/4/04) shot dead two paramilitary policemen
in Ambon city, Maluku province, where clashes between Muslims and Christians have
now killed 29 people.
Maluku Police chief General Bambang Sutrisno said unidentified snipers had killed
the two Mobile Brigade (Brimob) policemen and seriously injured a third. He was only
able to identify one of the slain officers.
"I have just received a report about the killing of 1st Sergeant Syarifuddin and one of
his colleagues in the Talake area. Their remains are being kept at the Al-Fatah
Hospital awaiting transfer to Jakarta," Maluku Police chief General Bambang Sutrisno
was quoted as saying by state news agency Antara.
The Brimob officers had arrived in Ambon late Monday as part of a 200-strong force
sent from Jakarta to try to quell two days of fighting between the city's Muslim and
Christian communities.
Despite earlier claims that security forces had restored peace, reports said arson
attacks, gunfire and explosions were continuing in Ambon.
Yopie, an official at the Oekumene Christian Crisis Center, was quoted by Agence
France-Presse as saying the bodies of two men with multiple stab wounds were found
floating in the city's bay early Tuesday.
The latest killings have heightened fears the Maluku islands could return to the
sectarian carnage that resulted in about 6,000 deaths over 1999-2002.
Violence is reportedly continuing in the Tanah Lapang Kecil and Batugantung districts
southwest of the city center, where at least one of the policemen was shot.
Hospital staff were quoted as saying the injured Brimob officer and his slain
colleagues – all in their mid-20s – had all been shot in the head.
The violence started on Sunday after Christian separatists from the Maluku
Sovereignty Front (FKM) staged a parade to celebrate the 54th anniversary of the
outlawed South Maluku Republic (RMS). Nationalist Muslims hurled stones and verbal
abuse at the separatists, sparking deadly clashes between the two groups. Gunfire
erupted and hundreds of buildings were torched as the chaos escalated.
Police have arrested at least eight FKM members in connection with the violence.
Maluku Governor Karel Albert Ralahalu said Tuesday he had ordered local police to
question civil servants who reportedly participated in the RMS parade. "I have ordered
Maluku Police chief Brigadier General Bambang Sutrisno to question the civil servants
who took part in the RMS anniversary celebration and the violence that claimed at
least 27 lives and left 159 others severely injured," he said.
He vowed that any civil servants suspected of involvement in instigating the violence
would be brought to court.
Ralahalu also ordered Sutrisono and provincial military chief Major General Syarifudin
Summah to take repressive actions against those involved in arson attacks.
"We have ordered the provincial military and police chiefs to take repressive actions
against those who are found to have damaged and set religious and administrative
symbols on fire," he was quoted as saying by Antara.
He also called on local politicians and religious leaders to urge their followers not to
carry out revenge attacks but to remain peaceful.
Meanwhile, parliament's Commission I on security, defense and foreign affairs on
Tuesday sent a seven-member team to Ambon to investigate the conflict.
Commission chairman Ibrahim Ambong said the team is being led by legislator
Franky Kayhatu of parliament's military/police faction.
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