Mandala suspends service to Ambon due to clashes

Mandala suspends service to Ambon due to clashes

JAKARTA (JP): Privately owned Mandala Airlines has temporarily
halted its service to the Maluku capital of Ambon due to renewed
clashes between Muslims and Christians which have killed at least
100 people and injured 400 since late last month.

Antara quoted an official from Mandala's local office, Patty,
as saying on Sunday that the airline's headquarters decided to
halt its flights from Aug. 13 to Aug. 18 following the clashes in
Laha village, near the Pattimura Airport, some 30 kilometers
across the Ambon Bay, on Friday.

Patty said that Mandala's westbound flight from Ambon on
Wednesday was fully booked, with at least 100 people on the
waiting list.

An official of state-owned Merpati Airlines, Try, was quoted
as saying that its operations were not affected.

He said Merpati served westbound routes on Tuesday, Friday and
Sunday and eastbound destinations on Monday, Wednesday and
Saturday.

Flag-carrier Garuda Indonesia does not serve Ambon.

Head of the police operation and command center in Ambon,
Capt. Marthen Johannes, was quoted as saying by Antara that at
least one man was killed and two more injured in Friday's clashes
in Laha.

He also said that at least 30 houses and a dormitory owned by
the airport authority PT Angkasa Pura also were damaged in the
violence.

Malik Selang, a Muslim activist at Al-Fatah Mosque, told The
Jakarta Post by phone from Ambon that clashes between Muslims and
Christians erupted again in Laha on Sunday.

"People from the nearby Tawiri and Hatu villages attacked the
Muslim village of Laha this afternoon, but they were dispersed by
security personnel," he said.

Malik claimed that one man was injured in the violence and
admitted to Al-Fatah Hospital, while more than 54 houses in the
nearby Sakulah hamlet also were set on fire.

Noya Sileo Bistos, a Christian activist from Maranatha Church,
however, told the Post that a group of people riding on three
trucks from Laha were seen traveling to the nearby mountainous
area at around 11 a.m. on Sunday to attack Christian villages.

Police and the military could not immediately be reached to
confirm the reports.

Noya said that Ambon was calm on Sunday. Marines and Army
troops cleared road blocks set up by residents earlier to prevent
adversaries from approaching their neighborhood.

Two battalions of reinforcements from the Army's Strategic
Reserves Command (Kostrad) from Central Java arrived in Ambon on
a naval ship last week.

The military said there were four battalions of reinforcements
from outside the province in Ambon.

One battalion of marines arrived in Ambon late last month to
quell the renewed violence between Muslims and Christians which
erupted on July 27.

The upsurge in violence has forced more than 34,000 people to
seek shelter at 35 locations, including mosques, churches and
military barracks, and prompted thousands of others to flee to
other provinces.

More than 400 people have been killed in communal clashes in
the province since they first erupted in Ambon in mid-
January. (byg)