Nine dead, scores injured in Ambon trail of violence

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)