ASSOCIATED PRESS, Friday September 6, 2002 5:19 AM ET
Indonesia's VP accuses unnamed foreigners over Maluku
violence
JAKARTA, Indonesia - Indonesia's vice president Friday blamed unnamed foreign
forces for continuing violence between Muslims and Christians in Maluku province.
Hamzah Haz was speaking a day after four children were killed in a bomb blast at a
sports stadium in Maluku's provincial capital, Ambon.
"My conclusion is that (the perpetrators of the violence) aren't just from inside the
country, but there are also external forces that don't like a stable Indonesia," Haz told
reporters.
"They want to see Indonesia in continual crisis," he said, without elaborating.
Up to 9,000 people have been killed in the Maluku islands, about 2,600 kilometers
(1,600 miles) east of Jakarta, since 1999.
Sporadic bloodshed has continued despite a February peace accord.
The victims of Thursday's blast were both Muslim and Christian, local media reported
Friday. No one has claimed responsibility for the blast.
Haz, who also heads Indonesia's largest Islamic party, is known for his hard-line
religious views. He has often met with Jafar Umar Thalib, the commander of a local
Islamic militia, who is currently on trial in Jakarta accused of stoking the violence.
Christian leaders have said foreign Islamic fighters have joined the Muslim side.
Muslim groups accuse migrants from Maluku who are now living in the Netherlands
--formerly Indonesia's colonial ruler-- of cchanneling money and arms to Christian
fighters.
The Maluku archipelago was known as the Spice Islands during the Dutch colonial
period.
Copyright © 2002 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
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