- Title: INDONESIA: 5,000 STRONG MOB RAMPAGE THROUGH INDONESIAN TOWN.
- Date: 26th December 1996
- Summary: TASIKMALAYA, INDONESIA (DECEMBER 26 AND 27, 1996) (RTV - ACCESS ALL) (DECEMBER 26, 1996) (NIGHT SHOTS) 1. GV: TRUCK BURNING IN STREET (3 SHOTS) 0.15 2. GV/PAN: INTERIOR OF BURNING BUILDING/ GRAFFITI (2 SHOTS) 0.24 3. GV: BURNT OUT CAR SALES STORE (4 SHOTS) 0.51 4. GV: SMASHED BOTTLED WATER FACTORY 0.57 (DECEMBER 27, 1996) (DAY SHOTS) 5. GV: DAMAGED SHOP 1.00 6. MV: BODY OF CHINESE WOMAN BEING CARRIED OUT OF BURNT OUT SHOP, BY POLICE, BEING WRAPPED IN A GREEN SHEET AND PLACED INSIDE AMBULANCE (2 SHOTS) 1.20 7. GV/MV: YOUTHS IN DETENTION (3 SHOTS) 1.35 8. MV: YOUTH BEING QUESTIONED 1.40 9. GV/SV: YOUTHS WATCHED OVER BY POLICE (2 SHOTS) 1.54 10. LV/PAN: BURNT OUT CHURCH 2.00 11. GV: BURNT OUT CAR IN FRONT OF BURNT OUT CHURCH 2.08 12. GV: INTERIOR OF BURNT OUT CHURCH 2.13 13. MV: PRO-ISLAMIC, ANTI-CHRISTIAN AND ANTI-CHINESE GRAFFITI 2.22 14. LV: EMPTY STREETS, RUBBLE ON GROUND (2 SHOTS) 2.28 15. GV/MV: MORE PRO-ISLAMIC, ANTI-CHRISTIAN AND ANTI-CHINESE GRAFFITI (2 SHOTS) 2.40 16. GV/MV: VARIOUS OF ARMY ON STREETS (5 SHOTS) 3.04 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
- Embargoed: 10th January 1997 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: TASIKMALAYA, INDONESIA
- City:
- Country: Indonesia
- Reuters ID: LVA81Z1DJ2URYU4T5J1KB3E4UFUE
- Story Text: Around 5,000 people, many of them youths in their teens and early 20s, have rampaged through an Indonesian town, burning car showrooms, banks, and stores owned by ethnic Chinese, Christian churches and schools. Indonesian President Suharto has appealed for calm.
-------------------------------------------------------------------- Hundreds of troops patrolled the town of Tasikmalaya on Friday (December 27), a day after the riots which were apparently sparked by police brutality.
A military official and local journalists said at least two people -- one a middle-aged ethnic Chinese woman carried from a burnt-out shop -- had died in the rioting.
The main targets of the rioting appeared to be either Christian or Chinese-owned buildings.
A policeman said the riot seemed to have been sparked by a report that police had beaten teachers from an Islamic school.
Local news reports said one of the teachers had disciplined the son of a policeman, who summoned them for questioning.
Council officials said the town, a road and rail centre 200 km (125 miles) southeast of Jakarta, had returned to normal by Friday and that Moslems had gone to their usual Friday prayers and then dispersed peacefully.
Troops with rifles and rattan shields patrolled the streets past burned out or damaged buildings and set up road blocks every couple of hundred metres (yards).
Police said the rioters and looters came from both Tasikmalaya and outside the town.
Military authorities said 126 people had been detained for questioning at military headquarters. The local legal aid institute said 160 people were being held.
"Most of them are from outside the city and were taken while in stolen vehicles," a soldier said. Many of the vehicles were piled with stolen goods, including televisions and refrigerators.
Local residents put up signs on their premises and vehicles saying "Owned by Moslem" to save their property.
Rioters had scrawled obscenities on walls against the ethnic Chinese -- seen as dominating the economic life of the town. The rioters had also written signs saying "No to Jesus," "No to the Jews", and "Police are super-corrupt".
The Roman Catholic Sacred Heart of Jesus church, which only opened in August, was among the churches gutted.
Abdurrahman Wahid, leader of the Nahdlatul Ulama, Indonesia's largest Moslem organisation with some 30 million members, condemned the violence and called for calm.
Political and religious analysts say Christian churches become targets for mob violence primarily for economic and social reasons, with Christians -- often ethnic Chinese -- usually the more affluent members of the community.
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