REUTERS, Fri Apr 26, 2002 7:28 AM ET
Indonesia police fire shots to disperse Ambon rally
JAKARTA (Reuters) - Indonesian police in the eastern city of Ambon wounded at least
one person on Friday when they fired warning shots to keep a massive Muslim rally
from spilling into the city's Christian areas, witnesses said.
Earlier, Jakarta officials said police numbers in the troubled city were being bolstered
after several explosions rocked an area near the Muslim quarter on Thursday,
wounding at least two people and triggering a mob to set fire to a church.
Witnesses said more than 15,000 Muslims gathered in and around the city's main
mosque after mid-Friday prayers, staging a rally against what they viewed as
Jakarta's sluggishness in dealing with a local Christian separatist group.
"More than 15,000 -- almost 20,000 -- gathered at al-Fatah (mosque). A few tried to
slip into the Christian area but failed because police fired warning shots. One was
injured," a resident told Reuters by phone from Ambon, some 2,300 km (1,400 miles)
east of Jakarta.
Ambon, partitioned into Muslim and Christian areas, is the key hub in the Moluccas,
a once-picturesque chain of islands which has become the scene of savage religious
violence that has killed at least 5,000 people in the last three years.
A policeman told Reuters the shots were fired to prevent Muslim protesters from
provoking a fight with the Christians. He said he heard reports of an injury but could
not confirm them.
No more violence was reported after the shots were fired, and the rally ended
peacefully.
Thursday's violence coincided with the anniversary of local Christian separatist group,
the South Moluccas Republic (RMS) and follows a peace pact signed between
Christians and Muslims just over two months ago.
Local authorities banned journalists from covering the anniversary of the RMS, a
decades-old movement whose membership has dwindled to an estimated 100 people
but which is accused by many Islamic groups of backing attacks on Muslims.
Chief Security Minister Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said in Jakarta before the rally
that local officials were expecting trouble and President Megawati Sukarnoputri had
ordered security forces in Ambon to take "stern" action against troublemakers.
National Police Chief Da'i Bachtiar said 200 policemen from Jakarta's elite mobile
brigade (Brimob) left before dawn for the ravaged city.
"We have sent (200) police from the mobile brigade to provide extra support to
existing officials in Ambon," Bachtiar told reporters.
Around 85 percent of Indonesia's 210 million people are Muslim, although Christians
comprise half the population in some eastern areas such as the Moluccan island
chain.
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