JAKARTA, Nov 30 (AFP) - An Indonesian Christian activist claimed Thursday that 46
people had been slaughtered on a small island of the Malukus chain for refusing to
convert to Islam.
"We have received reports that on Kaisiui island in the Watubela island group, four
Christian hamlets were razed by Muslim attackers from the surrounding islands earlier
this week," said Sammy Waileruny, a lawyer with the Maranatha Christian centre.
The Watubela islands lie east of the main island of Seram.
He said that eight people were killed in the attacks on Tuesday and that some 3,000
villagers had fled to the forests to escape their attackers.
But their attackers, including Muslims from the Gorong island group, pursued the
refugees and had captured 671 of them by Wednesday.
"Our report, which was also corroborated by a military intelligence report that we have
obtained, said that 46 of those arrested were slaughtered after they refused to be forcibly
converted to Islam," Waileruny said.
The rest, he said, cowed by the slaughter, agreed to convert, he added.
"There has been no help from the local administration, the police or the military, despite
our repeated calls," he said.
The spokesman for the military headquarters in Ambon could not be reached for
comment.
In Ambon city, the capital of Maluku province, Muslims Thursday took over some 800
houses that had been evacuated by Christian families in the Wayame area, Waileruny
said.
"The Christian families were told by soldiers this morning to vacate their houses saying
that there was an impending mass attack by Muslims on the residential area," he said.
The fleeing families were now scattered, sheltering at the houses of friends and relatives
in Christian pockets in Ambon, including Kuda Mati, Gudang Arang and the Benteng
areas, he said.
The Maluku islands, previously known as the Spice Islands, have been torn apart by
almost two years of Muslim-Christian conflict, leaving more than 4,000 people dead and
over half a million refugees.
The sectarian violence was sparked by a dispute between a Christian public transport
driver and a Muslim in Ambon city in January 1999 that quickly degenerated into fights
between Muslim and Christian communities and later spread to other islands.
In June, Jakarta imposed a state of civil emergency in the Malukus and the North
Malukus but it has so far failed to rein in the violence. Both sides have accused security
forces of taking part in the fighting.
The British-based Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) said on Monday that Muslim
militant forces, many of them from outside the Malukus, have threatened that "there will
be no church bells ringing in Ambon by Christmas."
The state Antara news agency on Thursday quoted the governor of Maluku Saleh
Latuconsina as saying 1,300 militant Muslim reinforcements from Java island were now
in the islands.
Indonesia has been plagued by unrest since the end of the iron-fisted rule of former
president Suharto in May 1998.
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