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Fourteen
Christians killed in Indonesia΄s Ambon city in worst
violence since truce
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Associated
Press
Apr
28, 2002 |
By MICHAEL CASEY, Associated Press
Writer
JAKARTA, Indonesia - Assailants in black masks and armed with
grenades and rifles stormed a Christian neighborhood in the
religiously divided capital of Indonesia's Maluku islands on
Sunday yelling "kill them all" as they hacked, shot and
burned to death 14 people, including a baby, police and witnesses
said.
The bloodshed shattered a fragile peace pact forged earlier this
year between Christians and Muslims after three years of fighting
left 9,000 dead. It also comes two days after a militant Islamic
group, Laskar Jihad, rejected the February truce.
"It may be the end of the peace deal," said Christian
pastor Cornelius Bohm in Ambon. "There is no doubt that it
was Laskar Jihad" behind the attack in Ambon.
Laskar Jihad share suspected terrorist mastermind Osama bin
Laden's anti-Western stance but its commander, Jafar Umar Thalib,
has denied any links to international terror. The group could not
be reached for comment Sunday.
A senior police officer in Ambon, speaking on condition of
anonymity, said 14 people had been killed on Sunday. National
Police Chief Gen. Da'i Bactiar in Jakarta put the death toll lower
at eight. Both officers refused to speculate on the religion of
the killers.
Witnesses said about a dozen assailants attacked Soya village, on
Ambon's outskirts, around 4 a.m. (2100 GMT Saturday), setting 30
homes and a Protestant church ablaze. Six were stabbed to death,
including a 6-month-old baby. Six others were killed in the fires.
Two were believed to be shot to death. Eleven were injured.
"The scene is horrible," said one witness on condition
of anonymity. "I saw six bodies burned so badly you couldn't
recognize them."
Wearing black masks and military fatigues and carrying M-16
automatic rifles, the attackers came into the village screaming
"kill them all," "burn them all," witnesses
said. They went house to house, knocking on doors and shooting at
will into any homes that were occupied, witnesses said.
Survivors said they initially thought the intruders were soldiers
carrying out a security sweep but fled when the assailants started
tossing grenades and shooting at anyone who moved. Those
interviewed only described the attackers as "terrorists"
and said they were unsure if they were Muslim.
Residents said police were continuing to search burned-out homes
for more bodies.
Later Sunday, security officers fired warning shots to disperse a
crowd of about a dozen Muslims in Ambon, a witness said. They had
gathered after seeing several banned flags of the mostly
Christian, separatist Maluku Sovereignty Front being flown above
the city. No one was injured.
Tension has run high in Ambon since the Front celebrated the 52nd
anniversary of a failed independence bid Thursday. The group flew
its independence flags angering Muslims who responded by burning
down a partially rebuilt church and threatening to resume attacks
on Christians.
Bohm said Indonesia's government was trying to end the violence,
but did not have the power to clamp down on Laskar Jihad and other
Muslim extremist groups in the province, 2,600 kilometers (1,600
miles) east of Jakarta.
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Copyright ©
2002 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
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