The Star [Malaysia], Tuesday, January 14, 2003
Bomb in Indonesia's Maluku sparks mob attack
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP): Unidentified assailants hurled a bomb at a bus in
Indonesia's religiously divided Maluku province on Tuesday, sparking a mob attack
that left two people injured, police said.
No one was hurt in the blast in the provincial capital, Ambon. It was the first violent
incident in several months in the region, which has seen three years of bloody
Christian Muslim violence.
The explosion occurred in a Muslim part of Ambon shortly after four government
ministers left the city, said police Col. Usman Nasution. He said there appeared to be
no connection between the attack and the ministerial visit.
Shortly after the blast, which damaged the rear of the bus, a mob of angry local
residents threw stones at two people in a car whom they suspected were behind the
explosion.
The two received minor injuries, Nasution said. Police have yet to make any arrests
over the blast or the mob attack, he said.
At least 9,000 people were killed in fighting between Muslims and Christians in
Maluku between 1999 and 2002. A peace deal last year stopped the worst of the
violence.
The archipelago lies about 2,600 kilometres (1,600 miles) east of Jakarta
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