The Straits Times, Sunday, April 25, 2004 6.45 pm (Singapore time)
Clash kills 8 in Indonesia's Maluku islands
AMBON (Indonesia) -- Muslim and Christian gangs fought running battles in
Indonesia's Maluku islands on Sunday, leaving at least eight people deead, including
two youths who were hacked to death by sword-wielding men, witnesses and officials
said.
[Photo: At least eight people were dead and 18 others were wounded as fresh
violence erupted in Ambon, capital of the Indonesian province of Maluku on Sunday,
during the 54th anniversary of a pro-independence campaign. -- AFP]
At least 50 people were injured in the clashes in the provincial capital Ambon, hospital
officials said. At least three buildings were set ablaze, including a church and an
office housing United Nations agencies working in the region. There were no reports of
UN staffers being injured.
More than 9,000 people were killed in the Malukus between 1991 and 2001 in fighting
between Muslims and Christians that attracted Islamic militants from all over
South-east Asia.
The two groups signed a government sponsored peace pact in 2002, but sporadic
violence between them has continued and they now live in separate communities.
Sunday's clashes were some of the bloodiest since the truce. They occurred after
around a dozen members of the region's small Christian separatist movement paraded
through Ambon to mark the anniversary of a failed independence bid 54 years ago.
They traded jeers, insults and stones with mainly Muslim opponents.
Gangs of Muslim and Christian youths hurled rocks at each other in the centre of the
city, witnesses said. Gunfire was heard throughout the afternoon. Several small
explosions rocked the city.
The bodies of eight Muslims - most of them with gunshot wounds - were taken to the
city's Al Fatah hospital, the hospital's director Dr Riva Ambon said.
It was unclear who shot them. Witnesses said police and army were firing to disperse
the rioters. There were also reports of unidentified gunmen firing from tall buildings in
the city.
One resident said police intervened and tried to steer the convoy towards police
headquarters.
Authorities have banned any attempt to mark the anniversary.
Ambon police spokesman Lieutenent-Colonel Hendro Prasetyo said that calm had
returned by nightfall and that authorities were meeting to discuss whether to impose a
curfew on the city.
Efforts by Christian separatists to campaign for independence are regarded as a
provocation by Muslims in the province, and police had vowed to stop them marking
Sunday's anniversary.
Indonesia is predominantly Muslim, but South Maluku's two million people are evenly
divided between Muslims and Christians.
The Malukus are 2,600 km east of Jakarta. Known as the Spice Islands during Dutch
colonial days, the islands were once held up as a model of religious harmony. -- AP
Copyright © 2004 Singapore Press Holding. All rights reserved.
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