DATE=1/23/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=INDONESIA UNREST (L-O)
NUMBER=2-258341
BYLINE=PATRICIA NUNAN
DATELINE=AMBON, INDONESIA
INTERNET=YES
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: At least 22-people are dead and another 50
injured in the latest outbreak of religious violence
in Indonesia's Maluku Province. Patricia Nunan
reports from the provincial capital, Ambon, the attack
comes on the eve of a visit by Vice President Megawati
Sukarnoputri to the violence plagued region.
TEXT: /// ACT MAN CRYING ///
An old man wails outside the smoldering ruins of his
house. Witnesses say hundreds of Muslims attacked
three Christian villages during a two-hour assault
early Sunday on Haruku Island.
At least 300 houses a church and two schools were
burned to the ground, leaving the villages of Haruku
and Samed in ruins.
Only Christian men were targeted in the attack and
most women and children were able to run to safety.
Witnesses also say Muslims involved in the massacre
have the support of some members of the Indonesian
Army, and that many of the dead were shot in the chest
or the head.
The Indonesian military has not responded to those
allegations.
The alleged massacre is the latest incident in a waver
of religious violence in Maluku Province that has
claimed more than two-thousand lives in the past year.
The province, 26-hundred-kilometers east of the
capital Jakarta is almost evenly divided between
Christian and Muslim populations. Indonesia as a
whole is about 90-percent Muslim.
Analysts say the eruption of religious violence is, in
part, the result of long-brewing economic tensions
between that were kept in check during the three-
decades of authoritarian rule of President Suharto
that ended in May 1998.
The massacre report comes one day before Indonesian
Vice President Megawati Sukarnoputri is to visit the
provincial capital Ambon and some of the region's
outer islands. She is to meet with Muslim and
Christian leaders in Ambon. It will be her second
visit to Maluku Province in the past six-weeks.
The task of helping end religious unrest in Indonesia
was given to Ms. Megawati by President Abdurrahman
Wahid when he took office in October. Ms. Megawati is
to be accompanied by the Coordinating Minister for
Political and Security Affairs general Wiranto.
(SIGNED)
NEB/MPN/RAE
23-Jan-2000 10:33 AM EDT (23-Jan-2000 1533 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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