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)