INDONESIA: ARMED ATTACKERS RAID CHRISTIAN NEIGHBOURHOOD IN AMBON KILLING AT LEAST 12 PEOPLE.

Record ID: 355476

  • Title: INDONESIA: ARMED ATTACKERS RAID CHRISTIAN NEIGHBOURHOOD IN AMBON KILLING AT LEAST 12 PEOPLE.
  • Date: 29th April 2002
  • Summary: (U4) AMBON, INDONESIA (APRIL 28, 2002) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. GV: HOUSES BURNING (3 SHOTS) 0.17 2. GV/PAN: HYSTERICAL WOMEN BEING TAKEN OUT OF VILLAGE 0.34 3. GV/PAN/GV: BODIES CARRIED FROM VILLAGE ON STRETCHERS (4 SHOTS) 1.05 4. GV: BURNED OUT TRUCK 1.17 5. GV/MV: PEOPLE GATHERED OUTSIDE BURNING BUILDINGS (2 SHOTS) 1.2
  • Embargoed: 14th May 2002 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: AMBON, INDONESIA
  • Country: Indonesia
  • Reuters ID: LVACOI6TIDL541OC78YAEEHFSQYC
  • Story Text: Armed attackers have raided a Christian neighbourhood
    in Indonesia's ravaged city of Ambon, killing at least 12 people
    and raising fresh doubts about the chances for peace in the
    troubled Moluccas region.



    The attack occurred early on Sunday (April 28) as
    most of the villagers were asleep.

    Residents said the attackers were Muslim and were wearing
    camouflage outfits and carrying military style automatic
    weapons.

    They were also armed with crude bombs and swords and set
    fire to a number of houses and a church.

    The Indonesian military have denied any involvement.

    Indonesia has suffered from a series of religious, ethnic and
    separatist conflicts since the autocratic Suharto resigned
    from the presidency in 1998, bringing tensions to the surface
    that were largely restrained under his iron-fisted rule.

    Sunday's incident is the latest in several days of fresh
    trouble in Ambon, undercutting hopes a peace deal brokered
    between Muslims and Christians in February would finally bring
    an end to the strife.

    Dozens of police and troops had been deployed to secure
    the area and most of the fires had died out by dawn.

    Later in the day the dead were buried in a mass grave in
    the Christian part of town amid tight security.

    One of the victims was a five-month-old baby. Some of the
    other victims were burnt alive in their houses.

    Over the past three years, at least 5,000 people have
    been killed in religious violence in Ambon, some 2,300 km
    (1,400 miles) east of Jakarta, and in the Moluccas islands of
    which it is the hub.

    Some of the violence has involved para-military units
    affiliated with various Muslim and Christian groups.

    Security forces fired warning shots on Saturday to
    disperse protesting Muslims in the city, wounding one person
    in a virtual replay of a similar episode on Friday. Security
    forces also dispersed a crowd of at least 1,000 Christians on
    Saturday in another part of the city.

    The week's turbulence was sparked by the anniversary on
    Thursday of an independence declaration by the South Moluccas
    Republic (RMS), a Christian separatist group, that attempted
    to raise its banned independence flag in several areas of the
    city.

    The RMS was founded in 1950 by supporters of Indonesia's
    former colonial ruler, the Netherlands. While its membership
    has dwindled to an estimated 100, many Islamic groups accuse
    it of backing attacks on Muslims.

    More than 85 percent of Indonesia's 210 million people
    are Muslim, but Christians comprise half the population in
    some eastern areas, such as the Moluccan island chain.
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