Maluku residents breathe easy after riot rumors prove unfounded

Maluku residents breathe easy after riot rumors prove unfounded

AMBON, Maluku (JP): Residents here were relieved on Thursday
when rumors of large-scale riots did not materialize. Security
personnel had erected barbed wire barricades on both sides of the
streets, ready to be moved when needed.

Ambon hardly saw any activity and schools were closed. Few
government offices opened, including military facilities.

Throughout Wednesday night residents were terrified by
sporadic sounds of homemade bombs and guns heard across the city,
but there were no attacks.

However, many were shocked by the finding of a mutilated body
of a 13 year old girl, Franseska Isak. Her body was found on
Thursday by police in the Galunggung area and brought to the
Hailusi General Hospital. She was buried on Thursday.

Relatives said she boarded a public transportation vehicle on
Wednesday, one of the few operating, and that she was with her
family who had arrived by the KM Rinjani ship from Jakarta.

"She suddenly went out on her own," a relative said.

Passengers disembarking from ships in Ambon are advised to be
accompanied by security personnel.

Police said they had not arrested anyone in relation to the
crime.

Separately, two passengers on the way to Jakarta from Ambon
sustained stab wounds on Thursday when their ship, KM Bukit
Siguntang, arrived in Bau-bau, Southeast Sulawesi.

Both were volunteers delivering contributions for refugees on
Tual island, where thousands had fled to after clashes this year.

Nona, another volunteer assisting in the distribution of the
aid, said her stabbed colleagues were Riki Raubun and Karel
Ngarbingan. The motive for the attack is still unknown.

"The contributions were from expatriates from Maluku in the
Netherlands, and they were for everyone, both Muslims and
Christians," she said.

Based on telephone contacts with the victims, the attackers,
she said, "had apparently followed them from Tual". (48/anr)