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)