29 killed, eight injured in North Maluku unrest: Police<\/p>\n
AMBON, South Maluku (JP): At least 29 people have been killed
\nand eight more seriously injured in the most recent clashes
\nbetween Muslims and Christians in the North Maluku towns of Soa
\nSiu and Ternate, some 500 kilometers north of here, local police
\nsaid on Thursday.<\/p>\n
Maluku Police spokesman Maj. Jekriel Philip told The Jakarta
\nPost that some 14 churches and 275 houses, including 27 owned by
\npolice officers, were also set on fire in the violence.<\/p>\n
The communal clashes first erupted in predominantly Muslim Soa
\nSiu last Wednesday and spread to the nearby town of Ternate on
\nSaturday.<\/p>\n
Ternate is the capital of North Maluku, one of the country's
\nthree newly established provinces.<\/p>\n
Jekriel said as of Thursday, only one man had been arrested by
\nthe North Maluku Police. He said local police had confiscated at
\nleast nine homemade rifles, one hand grenade, five cartons of
\nammunition and dozens of sharp weapons.<\/p>\n
Jekriel also said some 200 people were evacuated by a navy
\nship to Bitung in North Sulawesi on Tuesday, while 900 more were
\nstill seeking shelter at local police and military headquarters.<\/p>\n
He said the situation in both areas was slowly returning to
\nnormal and that a battalion of the Elite Police Mobile Brigade
\npersonnel from Jakarta was still on its way.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile in Jakarta, the Indonesian Communion of Churches
\n(PGI) called on people in strife-torn Maluku to stop the months
\nof communal violence.<\/p>\n
PGI issued a statement on Wednesday urging all parties in the
\nprovince to stop fighting.<\/p>\n
\"We call on ulemas, priests and members of all religions to
\nrealize how deep we have been dragged into the wave of self-
\ndestruction,\" PGI said in a statement signed by its chairman,
\nSularso Sopater, and deputy secretary-general Weinata Sairin.<\/p>\n
PGI added that people in Maluku were \"trapped in a short-term
\npolitical interest that was deliberately and sophisticatedly
\nplayed by certain groups\".<\/p>\n
PGI, however, gave no support to the statement.<\/p>\n
The Maluku islands have seen religious violence since the
\nbeginning of the year. Tens of thousands of people have fled to
\nother provinces.<\/p>\n
More than 500 people have been killed in two waves of violence
\nbetween Christians and Muslims this year.<\/p>\n
At least four people were killed and scores injured on Tuesday
\nin the latest outbreak of violence between Muslims and Christians
\nin the South Maluku capital of Ambon.<\/p>\n
Four people were killed in separate early morning clashes in
\nthree areas in Ambon, a local police spokesman said.<\/p>\n
In Tuesday's clash, a mob threw gas bombs at the military
\nbarracks in an apparent protest against the military's inability
\nto stop arson attacks on provincial mosques and churches, the
\npolice and a local journalist said.<\/p>\n
Fighting between Muslims and Christians in the Batu Merah area
\non Monday left one church gutted and a mosque partially burned.<\/p>\n
Witnesses said more religious violence broke out in several
\nareas of Ambon after the attack on the barracks.<\/p>\n
Batu Merah has been the center of clashes between Muslims and
\nChristians since violence first broke out in Ambon in mid-
\nJanuary. (48\/byg)<\/p>",
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