Four killed, 300 buildings burned in Ambon conflict
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The situation in Haruku, Central Maluku, has been gradually returning to normal following a communal violence on Wednesday that claimed at least five lives and burned down 300 buildings, including five churches.
Sr. Comr. Anthonius Bambang Suedy, deputy chief of the Maluku Provincial Police, said there was no need to deploy security personnel to Haruku because the situation was under control.
"But, the chief of the police in Pelaw has been ordered to regularly report on the development in Haruku to take any immediate measures if the situation worsens," Antara news agency quoted Suedy as saying in Ambon, capital of Maluku, on Thursday.
He called on people outside Haruku not get easily provoked by the incident to prevent the violence from spreading to other areas.
The communal violence spread to Ambon with one person killed and a house burned down on Wednesday.
The incident was triggered by a trivial dispute between youths of the Pelauw and Kailolo villages in Haruku subdistrict during a local feast on Sept. 14. There were no details about the incident. Three people were killed in the incident and two others injured.
On Sunday one person was also killed when armed men attacked three villages in the northern part of Morotai, an island off the northwestern tip of Halmahera island in North Maluku, said a police officer in the neighboring district of Tobelo.
The police officer named the villages as Pangeo, Kusobo and Soara but declined to provide further information. He said the security situation had since returned to normal.
Serious communal violence between Muslims and Christians first erupted in Ambon Island in January 1999 and quickly spread to the other islands in Maluku and North Maluku.
It has since left more than 6,000 people dead and over 750,000 homeless.
Morotai was the scene of heavy fighting between Allied and Japanese forces during World War II in 1944, as US General Douglas MacArthur fought his way back to the Philippines.
The Maluku islands, formerly a single province, were on January 1, 2000, split into two provinces. Maluku province covers the islands of Ambon, Seram and the other islands to the south, and the province of North Maluku covers Ternate, Tidore and Halmahera islands.
Both North Maluku and Maluku have been under a civilian state of emergency since last year as part of the authority's efforts to restore security and order in the two provinces.