Suspect bags force Ambonese to flee

Suspect bags force Ambonese to flee

AMBON, Maluku: Police secured on Tuesday two plastic bags
suspected of containing homemade bombs and firearms in the Jl.
Tulukabessy area near downtown Ambon, Maluku province.

The bags -- one red and another black -- were first found
hanging on a fence by local residents at 10:30 a.m. The
discovery forced vendors, pedestrians, and ojek (motorbike taxi)
and public car drivers to vacate the area.

A police bomb squad team, which arrived around 35 minutes
later at the scene, said the two suspicious bags contained used
cans and blue and black cables, without bomb timers.

The police later took it to their Mobile Brigade headquarters
for further investigation, and reopened the area to the public.

The police said the discovery showed that certain people had
attempted to spread terror in Maluku, once wracked by three years
of religious fighting since 1999.

Local Muslim and Christian leaders signed a peace accord in
February 2002 to end the conflict, but sporadic violence
continued to break out occasionally.--Antara