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)