The Jakarta Post, 4/25/2004 9:32:03 PM
Church, UN office torched in Indonesia's Ambon
AMBON, Maluku (Reuters): A church and a UN office were torched and at least four
people killed on Sunday as Muslim and Christian residents of the eastern Indonesia
city of Ambon fought pitched street battles, witnesses and police said.
Dozens of people were also injured as mobs rampaged through a majority Christian
area of the provincial capital of the Maluku province, witnesses said.
Gunfire and explosions could be heard in several parts of the city. It was not clear who
was firing and the mobs were using mostly stones and knives.
"At the moment we know at least four people have been killed, but that toll could
rise," Maluku police chief Brig. Gen. Bambang Sutrisno told Reuters. He did not say
how the victims had died.
Thousands of people were killed in Maluku during nearly three years of sectarian
conflict before a peace deal was agreed in early 2002. Civil emergency curbs were
only lifted last year.
Sunday's clashes began after police arrested and then released a number of people
for trying to raise the banned flag of a little known and mostly Christian rebel group,
the South Maluku Republic movement.
"There are at least 40 injured in some hospitals. We are still trying to control the
situation." Jakarta-based El Shinta radio reported two people had been killed.
Novi Pinontuan, editor of the Suara Maluku newspaper in Ambon, told Reuters he had
seen a church and a local UN coordinating office in flames and that hundreds of
people were rampaging through parts of the city.
"The office and four UN cars were in flames," he said.
Caroline Tupamahu, the United Nations Development Programme officer in charge in
Ambon, said no staff had been injured and only two local security guards had been at
the office.
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