The Jakarta Post, 2/5/2006 4:42:51 PM
Three bombs found in refugee center in restive Ambon
JAKARTA (AFP): Indonesian police found and disabled three crudely made bombs
early Sunday in a refugee center in Maluku province, which has been torn by sporadic
sectarian violence since 1999, officers said.
"This is clearly bomb terror," said Ambon police chief Leoni! das Braksan.
Two crudely assembled bombs, equipped with timers, were found around 1:30 a.m.
local time (12:30 a.m. Jakarta time) following a tipoff at the Batumerah commercial
center, which has been converted into a shelter for Muslim refugees from the
sectarian violence, Braksan said.
A third wired bomb, of a similar type, was found in the same complex around 8:00
a.m. local time (7 a.m. Jakarta time), he added.
"We took no risk and disposed of them on site," he said, explaining that the devices
were destroyed in controlled explosions.
Ambon and other islands in the Maluku chain were rocked by Muslim-Christian
violence that left more than 5,000 people dead between 1999 and 2002, when a
government-sponsored peace pact took hold, but sporadic cl! ashes continue.
Braksan said that the incident may be linked to the ongoing trials of several
suspected extremists but added that there were no evidence so far backing that
assumption. (***)
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