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)