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Indonesia
deploys more police to troubled Maluku
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Deutsche
Presse-Agentur
Friday April 26, 2002 |
Jakarta, Indonesia beefed up security
in the Maluku islands on Friday after fresh explosions which
rocked the conflict-torn archipelago, one day after
pro-independence supporters commemorated their movement's 52th
anniversary.
"We have deployed two more companies of Mobile Brigade (Brimob)
police to Ambon this morning," to back up the existing
personnel, national police chief General Da'i Bachtiar told
reporters.
Bachtiar confirmed that "two more explosions" occurred
this morning in the Karang Panjang suburb of Ambon, the provincial
capital of Maluku, formerly known as the Moluccas.
The blasts caused no injuries, Bachtiar said.
Maluku's military commander Brigadier General Mustopo said 23
people had been arrested on Thursday for hoisting South Maluku
Republic (RMS) flags and as many as 200 separatist flags were
seized.
"Stern action will be taken against anyone else caught
hoisting RMS flags as happened on Thursday," Antara quoted
Mustopo as saying.
At least six people were injured either from explosions or gunshot
wounds on Thursday when hundreds of Moslems staged a rally to
protest the separatists flag-flying. The protesters also set a
church on fire.
Civil emergency authorities in the Maluku islands banned the
hoisting of the RMS flag on Thursday, marking the separatist
movement's 52nd anniversary.
The Maluku islands, known during the Dutch colonial period as the
Spice Islands, have been wracked by clashes between Moslems and
Christians for the past three years, forcing the government to
place the province under civil emergency status in early 2000.
More than 5,000 people have died in sectarian fighting, thousands
of others injured and an estimated 500,000 people left homeless by
the unrest.
A government-sponsored peace agreement was signed in February by
leaders of both camps in a bid to end the bloodshed, but has so
far failed to prevent a series of deadly explosions in Ambon. dpa
sh pj rk
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