Latest Maluku riots claim seven lives

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)