Fresh unrest erupts in Ambon

Fresh unrest erupts in Ambon

AMBON, Maluku (JP): Fresh unrest erupted in Suli village,
Salahutu district, Ambon, Central Maluku, when hundreds of armed
men from neighboring Tulehu and Tial villages attacked the area
on Tuesday morning.

But officials and residents gave conflicting accounts of the
number of fatalities in the incident.

Police claimed there were only two fatalities, including one
police officer, while local residents said they saw 27 bodies of
attackers in the area, 19 of whom had been properly buried on the
same day.

Separately, the Yogyakarta-based Ahlussunah Wal Jamaah Lasykar
Jihad task force Commander Ayip Syafruddin confirmed on Tuesday
that 27 Muslims, most of them allegedly unarmed civilians, had
died in the incident.

Ayip told The Jakarta Post from Surakarta in Central Java by
telephone that its Jihad force had attacked Suli village as the
villagers there had provoked their anger by saying that Christian
villagers had opened fire at a passenger ship carrying Muslims.

"It was an act of self-defense by the Jihad force and local
Muslims as we don't want to die without offering any resistance,"
he said, while claiming that the victims had been shot by police.

Suli residents said the morning attack had razed at least 54
houses in the village, which is situated some 20 kilometers away
from Ambon.

The armed attackers, clad in white robes, set up roadblocks on
Jl. Batumerah before launching the attack prior to the deployment
of reinforcements by the security forces in the village.

A Suli resident, Max de Wana, said the attackers, armed with
mortars and homemade bombs, started by burning down two empty
houses before they got involved in a firefight with one company
of joint military-police security personnel, backed by local
residents.

Spokesman for the Ambon-based Maluku Civil Emergency Post John
Tomasoa confirmed on Tuesday the attack in Suli village and that
barricades had been erected by the attackers.

"I was informed by the Ambon Military Command that six
truckloads of soldiers were deployed to Suli village and they had
to clear the streets of roadblocks," he said.

Soon after the incident, local residents said they saw dozens
of rioters in the Batumerah Tanjung and Galunglung areas, a
preliminary indication of a mass mobilization for subsequent
attacks.

Similar mass concentrations were also observed in Galala
village, in the border zone between the Batumerah and Mardika
areas, in Sirimau district, Ambon.

The escalating tension in Suli has resulted in an increase in
the number of residents leaving the area and seeking shelter in
nearby villages over the past few days. (49/lup)