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Indonesian
alert over religious attack
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BBC
World News
Monday, 29
April, 2002, 06:51 GMT 07:51 UK |
Indonesian security forces are
patrolling the Moluccan capital Ambon after religious violence saw
at least 12 people killed at the weekend.
Residents reported hearing gunfire
and explosions on Sunday night, but the situation on Monday was
more calm.
"Traffic is as usual, some
businesses are open but there are more troops and police on the
streets," one resident told Reuters news agency.
The latest violence was triggered
by Sunday's pre-dawn attack on a Christian village by masked men
armed with guns, grenades and daggers.
Relatives of the dead accused
Muslim militants of carrying out the attack, which was the most
serious outbreak of violence in the Moluccas since a peace deal
was signed by Christian and Muslim leaders in February 2002.
The deal was intended to put an end
to three years of sectarian violence in which more than 6,000
people have died.
Some of the attackers were reported
to have worn military uniforms.
Indonesia's armed forces commander
Widodo Adisucipto said his troops were not involved in the attack.
He blamed the violence on a spread of weapons in the province.
Security stepped up
Indonesia has ordered extra troops
and police onto the streets to try and stop any further violence.
Christian and Muslim residents are
also reported to have set up barricades on the roads leading into
their neighbourhoods, checking all vehicles trying to enter.
Some members of Indonesia's army
are reported to have called for martial law to be declared, one
step up from the existing state of civil emergency.
This would give the army wider
powers of arrest and detention.
The violence began early on Sunday
in the village of Soya.
Six people are reported to have
been stabbed to death, and a further six are said to have died
when houses and a church were set alight.
One of the dead is reported to be a
six-month-old child.
Independence
The violence comes after the
Christian separatist South Moluccas Republic (RMS) group raised
flags in Ambon on Thursday, the 52nd anniversary of a failed
independence bid.
Angry Muslim crowds took to the
streets in response, and the leader of the extremist Islamic
organisation, Laskar Jihad, called on all Muslims in the Moluccan
islands to launch a renewed war against the Christian community.
The group's commander, Jafar Umar
Thalib, told thousands attending a rally after Friday prayers that
the peace agreement should be ignored.
Christian leaders have accused
Laskar Jihad of being responsible for Sunday's attack, though a
spokesman for the group has denied this.
Muslims make up 85% of Indonesia's
210 million people, but in the Moluccas half the population is
Christian.
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