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Fresh riots break out
in Indonesia's Ambon province, three injured
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AP
Sat
May 4, 2002 5:40 AM ET |
JAKARTA, Indonesia - Fresh fighting
between Christians and Muslims in Indonesia's Maluku province
broke out on Saturday, leaving three people injured, witnesses and
local news reports said.
Indonesian security forces fired
warning shots to disperse the rock-throwing crowds in the center
of the provincial capital, Ambon, witnesses said. A car was
torched in the unrest.
Two people were hit by bullets,
while a third was injured in a bomb explosion, state news agency
Antara reported. It did not provide more details.
The clash was the latest in a
series of violent incidents that have undermined a recent peace
deal aimed at stopping three years of conflict that has claimed up
to 9,000 lives.
Both sides have accused the other
of triggering the latest bout of violence, which came after
several months of relative peace.
Last Sunday, unidentified attackers
killed 13 Christians in a raid on a village on the outskirts of
Ambon, which is separated into Muslim and Christian sections.
Some Christian leaders blamed a
militant Muslim militia, the Laskar Jihad, for the attack. The
group has denied any involvement
Fighting intensified in 2000 when
Laskar Jihad fighters arrived in the archipelago, 2,600 kilometers
(1,600 miles) east of Jakarta, from their base on Indonesian's
main island of Java.
The group has been accused of
having links to Osama bin Laden (news
- web
sites)'s al-Qaida network, something which it and Indonesian
officials deny.
Christian youth in Maluku have also
organized into militia groups.
Indonesia is the world's most
populous Islamic nation. However, in Maluku — which has a
population of about two million people — the balance between
Christians and Muslims is almost even.
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