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Moslems in Indonesia Burn Down Several Hundred Homes in Christian Area
Muslim militants in eastern Indonesia burned down several hundred homes in an overnight attack on a mainly Christian area where 26 people were killed in three days of fighting. The attacks on Christians in Maluku province, once known as the Spice Islands, continues with no end in sight, according to the Washington, D.C.-based human rights group International Christian Concern. On Monday, several hundred homes of Christians were burned down in the Tanah Lapang Kecil and Batugantung neighborhoods of Ambon, the provincial capital. The attack began at about 3 a.m. and continued into the afternoon hours until all of the homes were destroyed, ICC said. According to news reports, government buildings have been abandoned and taken over by unidentified snipers using the rooftops to scout victims, including several policemen who have been killed in the past few days. .... According to the Australian Associated Press, the latest violence began when members of the regionâs small Christian separatist Republic of South Maluku marched through Ambon to mark the 54th anniversary of a failed independence bid .... In response to the march, the AAP said, Muslim gangs torched houses and churches, and set fire to a local Christian University and United Nations offices. Several people also were hacked to death with machetes by the mobs, AAP reported, before hundreds of troops from Jakarta arrived to try to quell the attacks. .... The leader of the radical Muslim Brotherhood, Habib Husein al-Hubsyi, threatened earlier this week to send 7,000 holy warriors to the province. Posted by: Mike Sylwester 2004-04-28 |
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