The Jakarta Post, 5/17/2004 8:02:37 PM
Bomb rocks troubled Ambon after separatist flags fly
AMBON, Maluku (AFP): A bomb went off in the eastern Indonesian city of Ambon
Monday evening, just hours after two Christian separatist flags flew across a Muslim
area in a city still recovering from an outbreak of sectarian violence.
The explosion, which occurred at 18:03 p.m. (1103 GMT), was "quite loud" and
believed to have taken place near the Batugantung, Waringin and Talake area, which
border Muslim and Christian communities here, an AFP correspondent said.
There was no official statement from military or police as to what caused the
explosion or whether there were any casualties.
Earlier on Monday, two flags of the separatist South Maluku Republic (RMS) group
flew in Ambon.
The flags, tied to balloons, were released by an unknown group near the
predominantly Muslim area of Soabali.
They could be clearly seen by some of the 200 residents who were doing their daily
activities in Jalan Sultan Baabulah in Soabali.
Many of the residents were heard muttering: "They (RMS) are going too far." or "RMS
are savages."
But there was no immediate report of violent reaction to the reappearance of the flags.
Last month 38 people were killed in a week of violence that was sparked by a street
convoy of RMS activists in Ambon prompted by the arrest of their leaders following a
RMS flag raising ceremony there.
About 180 people were injured and hundreds of homes and many other buildings
including the United Nations mission were set ablaze.
The violence was the worst since a February 2002 pact ended three years of religious
battles pitting Muslims and Christians in Ambon and the other islands of the Malukus
in which some 5,000 people died.
Police have arrested more than 30 supporters of thepredominantly Christian separatist
movement over the recent Ambon incidents and some of their leaders had been flown
to Jakarta for investigation and trials.
Officials have portrayed the clashes as between independence supporters and
opponents, rather than Christian-Muslim battles.
Indonesia's population is 87 percent Muslim but Christians and Muslims live in roughly
equal numbers in the Malukus.
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