Thermopylae
04-29-2004, 10:34 PM
MUSLIMS and Christians equipped with homemade bombs and military-issue weapons clashed in Indonesia's eastern Ambon city today, leaving 15 injured, said medical officials
It was the sixth straight day of clashes in the provincial capital of the Maluku islands, leaving scores of houses in flames, according to witnesses.
At least 34 people have been killed, and the clashes have raised fears the region could plunge back into a Muslim-Christian war that killed 9,000 people three years ago.
Early on Friday morning fighting broke out in two parts of the city that straddle Christian and Muslim areas. Gunfire and explosions could be heard most of the night.
Muslim mobs torched at least 30 houses close to a Protestant church, witnesses said. Most of the homes were empty after their owners had fled when the clashes began Sunday.
An Associated Press reporter in the area late Thursday saw Christian fighters taking up positions with automatic weapons and stashes of homemade bombs.
Fifteen Muslims were taken to the city's Al-Fatah hospital with injuries sustained in the fighting, medical officials there said. There were no immediate reports of Christian casualties.
Elsewhere, unidentified attackers fired what appeared to be a mortar into a Muslim-part of the city. The device left a large crater in the ground but caused no injuries.
"There was a massive bang," said Ahmad Kadas, whose house was damaged in the blast. "We all ran out in panic."
Authorities have deployed hundreds of reinforcements to the city, but the new security officers appeared unwilling unable to stop the fighting, which is playing out in the city's narrow streets and dilapated housing.
In the 1999-2001 conflict, police and soldiers joined in the battles, as did hundreds of Muslim militants from across Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation, and elsewhere in Southeast Asia.
Sunday's clashes were triggered after the island's small, mostly separatist Christian group paraded through the city centre - an act regarded as a provocation by Muslims.
The violence has underscored the fragility of Malukus province, known as the Spice Islands during Dutch colonial rule and once held up as a model of religious harmony.
Unlike the rest of Indonesia, the province's two million people are evenly divided between Muslims and Christians.
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What a mess. It seems like all the Muslims want to be Saladin and all the Christians want to be Richard The Lionheart.
It was the sixth straight day of clashes in the provincial capital of the Maluku islands, leaving scores of houses in flames, according to witnesses.
At least 34 people have been killed, and the clashes have raised fears the region could plunge back into a Muslim-Christian war that killed 9,000 people three years ago.
Early on Friday morning fighting broke out in two parts of the city that straddle Christian and Muslim areas. Gunfire and explosions could be heard most of the night.
Muslim mobs torched at least 30 houses close to a Protestant church, witnesses said. Most of the homes were empty after their owners had fled when the clashes began Sunday.
An Associated Press reporter in the area late Thursday saw Christian fighters taking up positions with automatic weapons and stashes of homemade bombs.
Fifteen Muslims were taken to the city's Al-Fatah hospital with injuries sustained in the fighting, medical officials there said. There were no immediate reports of Christian casualties.
Elsewhere, unidentified attackers fired what appeared to be a mortar into a Muslim-part of the city. The device left a large crater in the ground but caused no injuries.
"There was a massive bang," said Ahmad Kadas, whose house was damaged in the blast. "We all ran out in panic."
Authorities have deployed hundreds of reinforcements to the city, but the new security officers appeared unwilling unable to stop the fighting, which is playing out in the city's narrow streets and dilapated housing.
In the 1999-2001 conflict, police and soldiers joined in the battles, as did hundreds of Muslim militants from across Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation, and elsewhere in Southeast Asia.
Sunday's clashes were triggered after the island's small, mostly separatist Christian group paraded through the city centre - an act regarded as a provocation by Muslims.
The violence has underscored the fragility of Malukus province, known as the Spice Islands during Dutch colonial rule and once held up as a model of religious harmony.
Unlike the rest of Indonesia, the province's two million people are evenly divided between Muslims and Christians.
---------
What a mess. It seems like all the Muslims want to be Saladin and all the Christians want to be Richard The Lionheart.