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DATE=12/27/1999
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=INDONESIA / VIOLENCE (L-ONLY)
NUMBER=2-257529
BYLINE=RON CORBEN
DATELINE=BANGKOK
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: Inter-communal violence has again erupted 
in the Indonesian province of Maluku, leaving a 
reported 37 civilians and Indonesian soldiers 
dead and dozens injured. Ron Corben reports from 
our South East Asia Bureau in Bangkok, the 
renewed clashes between Muslim and Christian 
communities are taking place despite tightened 
security.
TEXT: The wave of fresh bloodshed erupted Sunday 
in Ambon, the capital of the strife-torn Maluku 
province. 
Both sides used homemade grenades and arrows in 
the clashes that broke out at Trikora Square, in 
the center of the port city.
Indonesian marines, whose numbers have been 
reinforced in a bid to curb recent disturbances, 
tried to separate warring factions by setting up 
barbed wire roadblocks.  But when the angry mobs 
bypassed the roadblocks, troops opened fire with 
automatic weapons.
In acts of violence certain to arouse tensions, 
the Silo church -- the largest in the city -- as 
well as a nearby mosque were burned. Amid the 
spreading turmoil scores of shops were also 
burned.
The latest outbreak was triggered by reports 
Sunday that a 14-year old had been hit by a 
vehicle. It came on what had been a quiet day on 
which the Christian community had celebrated 
Christmas.
/// REST OPT /// On the nearby Buru Island, just 
northwest of Ambon and some 24-hundred kilometers 
from Jakarta, there were no church ceremonies 
Sunday.  Latest reports say last week's clashes 
there took up to 50 lives.
In recent days military commanders in Maluku have 
warned the sectarian violence could erupt into a 
full-blown civil war.  Both sides are reported to 
be heavily armed.
Some 750 people in the Malukus - fabled as the 
Spice Islands during the Dutch colonial era - 
have died this year in the sectarian clashes.
Maluku province has long been viewed as a model 
of how the two faiths in the largely Muslim 
Indonesia could be co-exist.  But a recent influx 
of Muslims from nearby islands appears to have 
unsettled the ethnic balance between the two 
communities.
Now on the streets of Ambon, British-made Saladin 
armored cars make their way down a no-man's land, 
in the provincial capital's commercial district. 
Their presence marks the divide between Christian 
and Muslim sectors.
NEB/RC/FC/KL 
27-Dec-1999 05:49 AM EDT (27-Dec-1999 1049 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
.