AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, Sunday April 28, 2002 3:28 PM
Twelve reported killed in renewed violence in Indonesia's Ambon
city
At least 12 people were reported killed after a gang raided two Christian villages south
of Indonesia's strife-torn Ambon city in a pre-dawn attack.
One dead and nine injured were taken to the Bakti Rahayu private hospital in Ambon,
a doctor there said.
"We have difficulties taking the injured and the dead from Soiya, but reports we have
received said that there have been at least 12 people killed there," the doctor, who
gave his name as Ginting, told AFP.
An employee at the general hospital of Ambon named Yoni said he too had received a
report of 12 deaths in the Christian village of Soiya, but said that poor transportation
links meant only one seriously injured person had been brought to his hospital.
He said part of the road linking Soiya and downtown Ambon and the hospital have
been blocked with rocks and home-made bombs had been thrown by unknown groups
near the Silo church.
Other casualties were reported in neighbouring Ahuru, another Christian village on the
southern outskirts of Ambon.
An as yet unidentified group of men attacked the two villages hours before dawn
Sunday, the official Antara news agency, adding that several blasts were heard during
the attack.
"I thought it was thunder. But when I opened the door, there were some people clad in
black and armed with swords," one of the injured, identified only as 35-year-old Ance
told Antara.
He said the men attacked him with a sword and hurled a bomb into his home.
"They freely opened fire, drew their swords confronting the people in their houses and
then hurled bombs. There must be more dead and injured victims who have not been
evacuated yet," Ronaldo Soplanit, another victim, told the newsagency.
Police in Ambon declined to comment on reports of the violence, but one officer at the
Ambon district police station speculated that the attacks were by Muslims who were
disatisfied by the security forces' failure to prevent flying of the South Maluku Republic
(RMS) flag.
He was refering to a separatist movement which celebrated its recent 52nd
anniversary in Ambon, capital of Maluku province, by flying RMS flags.
Despite warnings from authorities that the hoisting of RMS flags was outlawed,
activists tied flags to several balloons released over the city on Thursday and
Saturday.
At least three RMS flags carried by balloons were sighted over Ambon on Sunday.
Shots were heard when the first of the flags appeared around 10 am (0100 GMT) with
witnesses speculating that soldiers shot at the balloons attempting to bring them
down.
The flag flying has angered Muslims who have taken to the street to demand that
security personnel act more firmly against RMS supporters and prevent further
attempts to fly the its flag.
At least 27 people have been arrested following violence in Ambon since Thursday.
The predominantly Christian RMS, which was declared in 1950 by people loyal to
former Dutch colonial rule, resurfaced in the Malukus in 1999 following widespread
sectarian unrest.
Local Muslims accuse it of fanning religious tension.
More than 5,000 people have been killed and 500,000 left homeless in sectarian
clashes which have ravaged Maluku since early 1999.
The latest clashes further threatened a shaky two-month-old peace pact between the
Christian and Muslim camps.
Christians make up about half the population in the Maluku islands in otherwise
Muslim-dominated Indonesia.
Copyright © 2001 AFP. All rights reserved.
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