DATE=6/22/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=INDONESIAN VIOLENCE (L-ONLY)
NUMBER=2-263643
BYLINE=PATRICIA NUNAN
DATELINE=JAKARTA
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: Clashes between Christians and Muslims in
Indonesia's eastern Maluku province have claimed five
more lives. As Patricia Nunan reports from Jakarta,
the violence has sparked allegations that Indonesian
security forces are not doing enough to stop the
fighting.
TEXT: Fresh fighting erupted in Maluku's provincial
capital, Ambon, when Muslims attacked a police station
and set fire to houses and a church. Among the dead
were four police officers and a three year-old child.
Indonesia's state news agency says the violence
continued for several hours as the mob threw homemade
bombs and grenades.
Calm has returned to Ambon, but the city remains
paralyzed, with shops, schools, and offices shut down.
The violence comes after at least 114-people were
killed Monday on nearby Halmahera Island - about 25-
hundred kilometers east of Jakarta. Church officials
say a clash broke out after Muslim extremists attacked
the predominantly Christian village of Duma.
/// OPT /// In another incident on Halmahera Island,
three people were killed Tuesday when security forces
opened fire on a group of 200 Christians that had set
out to attack a Muslim village in revenge for Monday's
clash. /// END OPT ///
Local church officials say a Muslim extremist group
called "Laskar Jihad" or "the Holy War Force" launched
the attack on Duma. They say the group went to Maluku
province in late April after training at paramilitary
camps outside the Indonesian capital Jakarta. "Laskar
Jihad" leaders pledged to wage a holy war in support
of Maluku's Muslim community.
The charges that "Laskar Jihad" was involved in
Monday's violence have not been independently
confirmed.
Human-rights groups say the Indonesian military is not
doing enough to end the violence. Defense Minister
Juwono Sudarsono says security forces were doing their
best and that more troops would be deployed. He also
says it is difficult to stop the flow of illegal
weapons to the province.
Fighting between Maluku's Christian and Muslim
community has occurred sporadically since January
1999. The exact cause of the fighting remains
uncertain.
Indonesian government officials, including President
Abdurrahman Wahid, say groups of provocateurs have
gone to the province to stir up trouble in order to
undermine the central government.
Some analysts say that long-running tensions between
Maluku's Muslims and Christians were made worse by
Indonesia's economic crisis, now going into its
fourth-year. Others suggest that the downfall of the
authoritarian President Suharto in May 1998 weakened
Indonesia's central government and allowed pre-
existing tension between Christians and Muslims to
erupt into violence. (SIGNED)
NEB/HK/PN/GC/JO/RAE
22-Jun-2000 07:48 AM EDT (22-Jun-2000 1148 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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