The Jakarta Post, September 20, 2002
Four killed, 300 buildings burned in Ambon conflict
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The situation in Haruku, Central Maluku, has been gradually returning to normal
following a communal violence on Wednesday that claimed at least five lives and
burned down 300 buildings, including five churches.
Sr. Comr. Anthonius Bambang Suedy, deputy chief of the Maluku Provincial Police,
said there was no need to deploy security personnel to Haruku because the situation
was under control.
"But, the chief of the police in Pelaw has been ordered to regularly report on the
development in Haruku to take any immediate measures if the situation worsens,"
Antara news agency quoted Suedy as saying in Ambon, capital of Maluku, on
Thursday.
He called on people outside Haruku not get easily provoked by the incident to prevent
the violence from spreading to other areas.
The communal violence spread to Ambon with one person killed and a house burned
down on Wednesday.
The incident was triggered by a trivial dispute between youths of the Pelauw and
Kailolo villages in Haruku subdistrict during a local feast on Sept. 14. There were no
details about the incident. Three people were killed in the incident and two others
injured.
On Sunday one person was also killed when armed men attacked three villages in the
northern part of Morotai, an island off the northwestern tip of Halmahera island in North
Maluku, said a police officer in the neighboring district of Tobelo.
The police officer named the villages as Pangeo, Kusobo and Soara but declined to
provide further information. He said the security situation had since returned to
normal.
Serious communal violence between Muslims and Christians first erupted in Ambon
Island in January 1999 and quickly spread to the other islands in Maluku and North
Maluku.
It has since left more than 6,000 people dead and over 750,000 homeless.
Morotai was the scene of heavy fighting between Allied and Japanese forces during
World War II in 1944, as US General Douglas MacArthur fought his way back to the
Philippines.
The Maluku islands, formerly a single province, were on January 1, 2000, split into two
provinces. Maluku province covers the islands of Ambon, Seram and the other islands
to the south, and the province of North Maluku covers Ternate, Tidore and Halmahera
islands.
Both North Maluku and Maluku have been under a civilian state of emergency since
last year as part of the authority's efforts to restore security and order in the two
provinces.
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