The Australian, June 10, 2004
Petrol bomb hurled at church
From correspondents in Jakarta
A petrol bomb has been hurled at a Roman Catholic church in the fifth attack this
week on a church in Indonesia, police said today.
The attack on the Santo Yusuf church in the Sleman district of Yogyakarta city took
place early on Wednesday, said a duty officer at a local police station.
He said the attack in the Central Java city caused a small fire which burned part of the
front gate and the fence. No one was hurt.
Mobs attacked four churches in two neighbouring suburbs of the Indonesian capital
Jakarta on Sunday, slightly injuring a priest and causing some damage. Three of
those churches were in buildings in commercial areas that had no permit for use as
places of worship. Such unauthorised churches have come in for attack in the past.
Indonesia is the world's largest Muslim-populated state, with 88 percent of its 212
million people following Islam.
Some eight percent are Christians. Islam is not the official religion and the
constitution provides for freedom of worship.
© The Australian
|
