Latest Maluku riots claim seven lives
JAKARTA (JP): At least seven people were killed over the weekend in sporadic sectarian riots in the South Maluku capital of Ambon.
Following overnight clashes which claimed five lives, the violence resumed on Sunday in the Nania subdistrict, Antara reported.
Medical staff at the Dr. Haulussy General Hospital identified the latest casualties as Ade Piet Ohello, 22, and Edison Aponno, 21. Both died from gunshots, which also injured five other residents.
The survivors are under intensive medical care at the hospital.
Several houses and shops in the nearby Mardika district were earlier on Sunday set on fire by a group of unidentified people. The dawn attack started with home-made bomb explosions and gunfire, eyewitnesses said.
The eyewitnesses said security troops deployed to the scene were unable to take immediate action to quell the unrest.
Officials at the hospital identified four of Saturday's fatalities as Ramsi de Fretes, 15, Robby Kalipopin, 29, Agus Anongker, 21, and S. Saiya, 19.
Another victim was not yet identified as the body was headless.
Some 30 houses were also reportedly torched or looted.
Witnesses said violence involved residents in the villages of Durian Patah, Waiheru, Negeri Lama, Nania and Lehitu.
Witnesses said the violence was sparked by an incident on Friday when a group of villagers, believed to be from Lehitu, pelted passing cars from the village of Nania.
Angered by their action, residents then fought back but were quickly intervened by security forces who rushed to the area.
It was following this incident that the headless victim was found.
From Ternate, the capital of North Maluku, the unabated riots in the province have left infants facing malnutrition, Antara reported.
The news agency said on Saturday that in the last couple of weeks that baby's milk was in short in markets across the province.
Many vendors of basic foodstuffs have fled the new province as sectarian riots, which have prevailed in the Maluku islands for almost the whole year, are providing little indication of coming to an end.
Some residents said they had to order milk from Manado, South Sulawesi. "If we can find milk here, the price is doubled," one of the residents said.
Mothers have expressed particular concern because hundreds of doctors have fled the province. "Who will provide medical care for our children?" they ask.
North Maluku Police chief Col. Didik Prijandono has called on the fleeing residents to return home, saying the security situation here has been improving.
Maluku Police chief Brig. Gen. Dewa Astika said that police, marines and troops from the Maluku Military Command and the Army's Strategic Reserves Command were dispatched to the area to stop the violence.
The Maluku islands have seen religious violence since the beginning of the year. Tens of thousands of people have fled to other provinces. More than 500 people have been killed in several waves of violence over this year. (02/04/48/byg)