Bomber killed, travelers beaten in Ambon violence
Bomber killed, travelers beaten in Ambon violence
JAKARTA (JP): An unidentified man was killed by security
personnel after attacking a military post with handmade bombs in
Rinjani village, Baguala, Ambon on Sunday.
The victim was among a dozen others who journeyed from
Galunggung and threw two homemade explosives into a house used by
the personnel as a security post and another one into a market in
Rumah Tiga Village, Baguala subdistrict in the provincial
capital.
Several men rushed out of the house and shot and killed one of
the attackers, Antara reported. The bomb exploded behind the
house, and there were no reports of injuries.
Security was kept tight in the subdistrict following the
incident.
Separately, smoke was seen billowing from the main market at
Rumah Tiga village, where at least 50 kiosks caught fire.
Although police have not yet determined the cause of fire,
there is speculation that it may have been arson.
Security personnel immediately rushed to the scene to patrol
the area.
The province has been hit by almost incessant religious and
ethnic rioting for several months, claiming hundreds of
casualties.
Separately, nine passengers of Bukit Siguntang ship, operated
by state-owned PT Pelni, claimed they were beaten on their way
from Baubau to Ambon on Saturday, and another victim, a lecturer
at Pattimura University in Ambon, was still missing.
One of the victims, Thelma Dangeubun, reported the incident to
Maluku Provincial Police on Sunday, saying that she and eight
other passengers were beaten by a group of 25 youths on the
ship's deck.
She said that they were locked up in a room and beaten. She
said her face and breast were injured during the assault and her
mother was stabbed in her thigh as they tried to cry out for
help.
She added that her older brother, Joice Dangeubun, a lecturer
at Pattimura University, went missing.
She claimed that the other victims of the assault did not seek
medical treatment in Ambon for fear of retaliation.
Col. Bugis M. Saman, chief of the Maluku Provincial Police,
was unavailable for comment on the incident on Sunday.
Passengers going to and from Ambon have often reported the
ships were a source of terror.
At least 31 passengers were allegedly assaulted on vessels and
five others, including Edwin Nanere, the son of the Pattimura
University rector, was also killed in an attack on a ship.
Semmy Waileruny, the coordinator of Bethel Church's lawyers in
Ambon, condemned the latest report of assault.
He claimed that the incident was yet another example of the
heightened ethnic conflict in the province.
Brig. Gen. Max Tamaela, chief of the Pattimura Military
Command overseeing Ambon, said that liquor, which is widely
produced in the province, influenced the violence.
"Almost all the violence that occurred recently was triggered
by rat-brand liquor which is freely produced and marketed in the
province," he said in a meeting with local religious figures and
traditional leaders in Ternate on Saturday.
He called on religious and community leaders to help stop the
prolonged riots in the province. (48/rms)