AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, Thursday April 25, 2002 3:11 PM
Blasts, shots mar separatist group's anniversary in tense Ambon
Blasts and gunshots raised tensions in the eastern Indonesian city of Ambon as
hundreds of loyalist Muslims staged a noisy protest against independence supporters
flying flags to mark the 52nd anniversary of their outlawed separatist group.
At least two people were reported to have been injured, a local hospital worker said on
Thursday.
At least three blasts were heard across the city as balloon-borne flags of the
separatist South Maluku Republic (RMS) floated overhead, residents said.
Shots were fired by security personnel to shoot down the balloons and to disperse
angry Muslims protesting against the flying of the flags.
An employee of the Protestant Hospital in Ambon told AFP that one woman was
admitted with injuries from a homemade bomb. A second injured person was
reportedly sent to another private hospital, he added.
One of the blasts went off outside the Silo Protestant church, which is currently under
reconstruction and not in use.
In the city's downtown Trikora district, police and soldiers fired warning shots into the
air after Muslim protestors began pelting the flag-carrying balloons with stones.
Hundreds of troops had been deployed after more than 1,500 Muslims, angered at the
security forces' failure to prevent the flying of the separatist flags, filled the streets.
The security forces were preventing protesters from marching on Christian areas.
Protest leaders were meeting with the Maluku military commander over their demand
that the security authorities take firmer action against the flag-hoisters.
In Jakarta, top security minister Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said security was under
control in Ambon despite efforts "by a very small group of Maluku people to hoist
RMS flags".
The RMS was declared in 1950 by people loyal to Dutch colonial rule, who staged a
short-lived revolt against newly-independent Indonesia.
RMS activities, which had since been confined to overseas, resurfaced in Maluku after
widespread sectarian unrest broke out in Ambon in January 1999.
Muslims have accused the predominantly Christian RMS of fanning sectarian violence
that has ravaged Maluku since January 1999, killing more than 5,000 people,
displacing more than 500,000 others and cutting a swathe of destruction.
Christians have in turn pointed the finger at Laskar Jihad, a Java-based militia group
which has sent thousands of Muslim fighters to the eastern islands since May 2000.
Officials have put in place a series of measures to prevent the RMS from upsetting a
fragile state-brokered peace agreement between warring Muslim and Christian camps
reached in February.
Maluku's 19-month old civil emergency authority has extended a nightly curfew by
three hours, closed the province to foreigners and non-governmental organizations and
imposed a news blackout on RMS activities for 20 days as of April 10.
Access to areas surrounding the home of Alex Manuputty, the RMS leader arrested
last week and now facing subversion charges, has also been closed ahead of a
planned RMS flag-raising ceremony.
More than 80 percent of Indonesia's 214 million people are Muslims but in some
eastern regions, including the Malukus, Christians make up about half the population.
Copyright © 2001 AFP. All rights reserved.
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