Pekalongan still tense after riot

Pekalongan still tense after riot

JAKARTA (JP): Hundreds of police and military officers were
remained on alert yesterday after a racially-charged riot on
Wednesday in Pekalongan, Central Java.

An anonymous police source told The Jakarta Post there was
tension in town of more than 130,000 people, 325 kilometers east
of Jakarta, after another smaller incident yesterday afternoon.

A group of people, leaving a mosque after saying their Friday
prayers, took to the street and began to stone shops as they
passed by.

The source said that the security personnel were able to
control the violence in a relatively short time before it spread.
There was no report of damages or casualties however, officers
remained posted along some of the town's main streets.

In the first rioting on Wednesday, people ransacked shops and
property believed to be owned by ethnic Chinese. The riots
reportedly started after a mentally ill man abused the holy book
of a certain religion on Wednesday morning.

Brig. Gen. Djoko Subroto, the chief of staff of the Diponegoro
Military Command, however, had specifically appealed to the
Moslem community for restraint.

The reported abuse of the holy book was not intended to insult
the particular religion, Djoko said. "The man was of unsound mind
and his family were not aware of his behavior," Djoko said.
"Don't be easily provoked by malicious rumors ..."

The Post source reiterated Djoko's call and said the
misunderstanding was resolved in a meeting between the man's
family, local officials and the local chapter of the Indonesian
Council of Ulemas (MUI).

The Pekalongan incident was the second outbreak of ethnic
violence reported on Java in the past two months.

Last month hundreds of people in Purwakarta, West Java, rioted
after a 14-year-old girl, accused of stealing chocolates, was
beaten by staff of a Chinese-owned department store. (rms)