The Age [Australia], April 28, 2004
Ambon victims say police no help
By Matthew Moore, Indonesia Correspondent - Ambon
Survivors of an attack by an armed gang that left about 20 people injured in
Indonesia's Maluku province have accused the Indonesian security forces of standing
by while men, women and children were stoned and attacked with machetes and
clubs.
About 30 Christians returning to the Maluku capital Ambon by ship from East Timor
say they agreed to leave the vessel, which arrived on Monday evening, only after they
were assured they would be protected from the religious violence that began there on
Sunday.
But when the group of Ambon residents climbed onto two trucks provided by
Indonesia's paramilitary police Brimob, a gang of men surrounded them and began
stoning them while the security forces in a third truck looked on.
Gustav Makatita said he was on one of the trucks with 12 members of his family when
Muslim youths climbed up and began attacking them.
"They (security forces) were only 10 metres away. They did nothing to help us, we
were extremely disappointed. It was as if that was their intention," he told The Age at
Bakti Rahayu hospital.
Mr Makatita suffered only a head wound, but his sister Seli, who is six months
pregnant, was stabbed in the back and slashed with a machete on the lower and
upper arm as well as the chin.
In a makeshift hospital set up in a church, Seli's mother told how she was slashed
with a machete on her neck when young men tried to cut her throat while she was
protecting her three-year-old granddaughter.
"The police did not do anything. People were screaming for help and crying as they
were attacked."
A police spokesman, Hendro Prasetyo, agreed Brimob police had been at the wharf
but insisted they had tried to protect passengers from a large gang.
"In fact, the police fired blanks to try and force a crowd to allow the trucks to pass.
But it seems they were not afraid, they even got into the trucks."
Mr Prasetyo said two Brimob police were shot by snipers in Ambon yesterday, one of
whom was killed, although an Associated Press reporter, Chris Brummit, said he saw
two bodies unloaded from a Brimob truck.
Small explosions and sporadic gunfire from snipers continued yesterday and the
national police spokesman, Brigadier-General Soenarko, said the death toll was now
24.
Scores of refugees have fled their houses amid rumours that there will be more
fighting. The UN pulled non-essential staff out yesterday.
Security forces have imposed a 6pm curfew on Ambon to try to quell the violence that
erupted on Sunday after supporters of a mainly Christian pro-independence movement
fought with Muslims.
Dr Kris from the Protestant Church of Maluku hospital has turned his church into a
ward for the fourth time since the first outbreak of religious violence in 1999, which left
more than 5000 people dead.
Copyright © 2002 The Age Company Ltd
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