DATE=5/30/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=INDONESIA VIOLENCE (L-ONLY)
NUMBER=2-262945
BYLINE=PATRICIA NUNAN
DATELINE=JAKARTA
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: A violent attack on two Christian
villages in Indonesia's eastern Maluku province
has killed at least 44 people. Patricia Nunan
reports from Jakarta, authorities suspect a
fundamentalist Islamic group is behind the
killings.
TEXT: Military officials in Maluku province
confirm that the killings took place during a
pre-dawn raid Monday on two predominantly-
Christian villages on the island of Halmahera.
Reports from the region, about 26-hundred
kilometers east of Jakarat, say attackers armed
with guns and bombs swept into the villages by
land and by sea.
Local church officials said many of the victims
were killed as they slept, and many homes were
set afire, injuring hundreds of people.
The attack was almost identical to another
incident in Halmahera last week, in which 34
people were killed.
Police say they suspect the attacks were the work
of "Laksar Jihad" -- Islamic extremists whose
name means "Holy War Force." The group has vowed
to wage a holy war in support of Maluku's
Muslims.
About two thousand members of the "Laksar Jihad"
paramilitary group attended training camps
outside the Indonesian capital Jakarta in April
before setting off for Maluku.
The past week's attacks follow a year of clashes
between Muslims and Christians in Indonesia's
Maluku provinces. The violence has killed more
than 25-hundred people, 800 of them on Halmahera
island.
Islamic and Christian community leaders in Maluku
have traded charges of responsibility for the
attacks. Some also say the violence has been
orchestrated by an unknown group of provocateurs
trying to destabilize Indonesia; however, that
theory has not been substantiated. Others say a
proposal last year by the central government,
which wants to create a new province in northern
Maluku, has led to fighting along religious lines
among those who want to control the new local
government.
Most international aid workers withdrew from
Maluku province last week. They say conditions
are too dangerous for them to work. (Signed)
NEB/HK/MPN/GC/WTW
30-May-2000 02:24 AM EDT (30-May-2000 0624 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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