The Jakarta Post, 4/26/2004 6:28:32 PM
Police, troops regain control after Muslim-Christian violence kills
23
AMBON, Maluku (AFP): Hundreds of Indonesian troops and police appeared late
Monday to have regained control of the eastern city of Ambon, where 23 people died
and 200 homes were torched in an outbreak of Christian-Muslim violence.
"It's silent. Ambon is like a ghost town. There were sporadic actions but no direct
confrontations," said Rivai Ambon, director of Al Fatah hospital in the Maluku
provincial capital of Ambon.
The battles which flared Sunday after a parade by Christian separatists celebrating
the 54th anniversary of the South Maluku Republic(RMS), were the worst since a pact
in February 2002 ended three years of sectarian fighting in which some 5,000
peopledied.
Acting coordinating minister for political and security affairs Hari Sabarno said 200
homes had been set ablaze. Witnesses said the United Nations mission, a hotel and
a church were also torched, as were a Christian university and a Muslim high school
hit by tit-for-tat arson attacks.
Sporadic clashes continued for a second day but residents said the city center, still
scarred from the previous violence, was quiet later Monday.
Ambon said 16 people had died at his hospital or had been brought in dead since
Sunday. Two other hospitals reported a total of seven more deaths from violence, plus
one person who died of a heart attack.
Paramilitary police who had been flown from Jakarta entered the Tanah Lapang Kecil
area southwest of the city center around 6:30 pm local time (0930 GMT) and
immediately began dispersing groups, an AFP correspondent said.
While the violence was dying down, efforts to reconcile the two communities had
suffered a major setback.
Hundreds of Muslims and Christians had fled their sectors of the divided city. Others,
armed with machetes and sticks, stood guard over their areas as barricades sprang
up on streets. Only a few stalls were open to sell essentials.
Some 200 paramilitary police flew in Monday morning to supplement the existing
force of about 1,100. National Police chief Gen. Da'i Bachtiar said about 200 more
would also be sent.
He said the military sent a battalion (500 to 600 men) which would arrive Tuesday.
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