Mob attacks and burns church in Ujungpandang

UJUNGPANDANG (JP): A Catholic church in the South Sulawesi capital city was attacked and set ablaze on Friday afternoon.

"We are not yet able to say where the mob had come from, but we'll investigate the incident," Ujungpandang police chief Col. Yusuf Manggabarani told journalists in a press conference with military commander Col. Husni Thamrin.

It was the latest in a series of riots with religious overtones in the country over the past two weeks.

However South Sulawesi police chief Brig.Gen. Mudjin Sutrisno said the incident had nothing to do with the riots in Kupang, West Timor. On Monday three mosques were burnt and three others damaged in Kupang, capital of East Nusa Tenggara, after 22 churches were attacked and 14 people were killed in riots in the Ketapang area of Jakarta on Nov. 22.

No casualties were reported in Kupang and in Ujungpandang as of late Friday, when the city and its places of worship including the cathedral were heavily guarded by security personnel and residents.

A witness on Friday in Ujungpandang said the incident broke out at 1:15 p.m. A mob of 300 people ran amok near the Kare area on Jl. Perintis Kemerdekaan, the road to the airport, and began to attack the nearby Theresia church.

The church, some 15 kilometers from downtown, was rumored to be housing refugees from East Nusa Tenggara, the witness said. "The mob just lost control and set the church on fire," the witness told The Jakarta Post.

Six fire engines arrived half an hour later and managed to put the fire out in another 30 minutes. But it had already gutted the newly-renovated church.

Witnesses said rumors of church burning had been rife over the past few days and that the security apparatus had actually been posted to some places in anticipation of trouble.

But the incident happened while many members of the security force were performing their Friday prayers. South Sulawesi Military Command Chief Col. Husni Thamrin refused to take journalists questions on the incident.

"Let's calm down first," he said. Ujungpandang is predominantly Moslem.

A church staffer could not hide his anger over what he believed was caused by the slowness of the security apparatus in averting the incident.

The Friday incident occurred on the same day as the return of around 350 South Sulawesi natives from Oesapa, East Nusa Tenggara, who had had to leave after the Kupang riots. Oesapa was among the worst-hit areas with rioters burning houses there, one of the natives said. They were received in a homecoming ceremony in the governor's office.

Both Christian and Moslem leaders in the country have condemned all the violence, warning followers that they were being pitted against one another by parties interested in political power.

President B.J. Habibie has also condemned the acts. (Upik Jupriadi/37/30)