ASSOCIATED PRESS, Sun Apr 28, 2002 4:04 AM ET
Fourteen Christians killed in Indonesia's Ambon city in worst
violence since truce
By MICHAEL CASEY, Associated Press Writer
JAKARTA, Indonesia - Assailants in black masks and armed with grenades and rifles
stormed a Christian neighborhood in the religiously divided capital of Indonesia's
Maluku islands on Sunday yelling "kill them all" as they hacked, shot and burned to
death 14 people, including a baby, police and witnesses said.
The bloodshed shattered a fragile peace pact forged earlier this year between
Christians and Muslims after three years of fighting left 9,000 dead. It also comes two
days after a militant Islamic group, Laskar Jihad, rejected the February truce.
"It may be the end of the peace deal," said Christian pastor Cornelius Bohm in
Ambon. "There is no doubt that it was Laskar Jihad" behind the attack in Ambon.
Laskar Jihad share suspected terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden's anti-Western
stance but its commander, Jafar Umar Thalib, has denied any links to international
terror. The group could not be reached for comment Sunday.
A senior police officer in Ambon, speaking on condition of anonymity, said 14 people
had been killed on Sunday. National Police Chief Gen. Da'i Bactiar in Jakarta put the
death toll lower at eight. Both officers refused to speculate on the religion of the
killers.
Witnesses said about a dozen assailants attacked Soya village, on Ambon's
outskirts, around 4 a.m. (2100 GMT Saturday), setting 30 homes and a Protestant
church ablaze. Six were stabbed to death, including a 6-month-old baby. Six others
were killed in the fires. Two were believed to be shot to death. Eleven were injured.
"The scene is horrible," said one witness on condition of anonymity. "I saw six bodies
burned so badly you couldn't recognize them."
Wearing black masks and military fatigues and carrying M-16 automatic rifles, the
attackers came into the village screaming "kill them all," "burn them all," witnesses
said. They went house to house, knocking on doors and shooting at will into any
homes that were occupied, witnesses said.
Survivors said they initially thought the intruders were soldiers carrying out a security
sweep but fled when the assailants started tossing grenades and shooting at anyone
who moved. Those interviewed only described the attackers as "terrorists" and said
they were unsure if they were Muslim.
Residents said police were continuing to search burned-out homes for more bodies.
Later Sunday, security officers fired warning shots to disperse a crowd of about a
dozen Muslims in Ambon, a witness said. They had gathered after seeing several
banned flags of the mostly Christian, separatist Maluku Sovereignty Front being flown
above the city. No one was injured.
Tension has run high in Ambon since the Front celebrated the 52nd anniversary of a
failed independence bid Thursday. The group flew its independence flags angering
Muslims who responded by burning down a partially rebuilt church and threatening to
resume attacks on Christians.
Bohm said Indonesia's government was trying to end the violence, but did not have the
power to clamp down on Laskar Jihad and other Muslim extremist groups in the
province, 2,600 kilometers (1,600 miles) east of Jakarta.
Copyright © 2002 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
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