Nine dead, scores injured in Ambon trail of violence

AMBON, Maluku (JP): A trail of violence in Ambon left at least nine people dead and scores injured on Sunday as security forces seemed helpless to stop rioters despite the enactment of the civil emergency status.

Two of those killed on Sunday were a woman named Desy Tanga and a four-year-old girl Novita Loupatty who had sought refuge in a house in Batu Gantung Dalam, which was blasted with mortars.

Data gathered from Dr. Haulussy General Hospital, Bakti Rahayu private hospital and Al-Fatah Islamic Hospital revealed that at least seven others died in separate incidents across the city.

Most victims died from gunshot wounds, mortars, grenades or bomb shrapnel.

"Dozens of others were probably killed or injured as the sniper attacks are rampant. Gunfire and explosions are still heard everywhere and have not stopped in four days," a local journalist said.

Sunday's violence brought the death toll in a week of fracas to 20. Nearly 100 have died since the implementation of the civil emergency status on June 27. Hundreds more are wounded and thousands have fled their homes.

Locals have expressed concern that security forces have not been able to stop the violence which is openly taking place in public places.

Some have also accused security forces of abetting the violence by supplying weapons.

Minister of Defense Juwono Sudarsono in an interview with The Jakarta Post recently admitted there are some elements of the Army stationed in Maluku who have "facilitated" or exacerbated the violence.

Despite the unabated violence, the government last week said it would not heighten the security status further into a state of military emergency, which is effectively martial law.

The latest spate of violence erupted not long after the arrival of the Jihad Force (Laskar Jihad) members from outside the islands.

In Yogyakarta both Laskar Jihad commander Jafar Umar Thalib and the group's chief for Tidore Abu Bakar Wahid Al Banjary stated that "the enactment of civil emergency in Maluku and North Maluku is useless" and that their personnel there, along with fellow locals, were determined to wage a holy war.

"It (civil emergency) is merely political rhetoric for the international community's desire to cover the government's inability in handling the conflict. It has no effect at all," Jafar said on the sidelines of a mass gathering of some 5,000 supporters of the Jihad Force at Sasono Woro building near the northern Square of Yogyakarta on Sunday.

Meanwhile, the Navy announced it had deployed eight more warships to the Maluku islands in a bid to patrol the waters to intercept rioters smuggling weapons to the islands.

Last month the Navy had caught 19 boats trying to smuggle weapons into Maluku.

In Jakarta on Sunday, Foreign Minister Alwi Shihab reiterated that the government would not tolerate any kind of foreign intervention in strife-torn areas across the country.

Alwi also stressed that foreign countries could provide humanitarian aid through the government or other domestic organizations without having to send foreign staff into the areas.

"We will welcome all humanitarian aid and will facilitate the disbursement of the aid. But we do not need anybody to come...the government does not need further intervention," he remarked.

The World Council of Churches last week called on the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to go to Indonesia in a bid to end the violence.

In a separate development in the ravaged town of Poso, Central Sulawesi, officials located on Friday a total of 24 bodies believed to be victims of the May 23 rioting there.

"This brings the death toll in the Poso unrest to 235, and it will probably rise to 300 as we're still checking other possible mass graves," Wirabuana Military chief Maj. Gen. Slamet Kirbiantoro said on Saturday. (49/27/swa/edt/dja)