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Lawamena
Victoria
Reports
by
CRISIS
CENTRE DIOCESE OF AMBOINA
Jalan Pattimura 32 - Ambon 97124 ( Indonesia
Tel 0062 (0)911 342195 Fax 0062 (0)911 355337
e-mail [email protected]
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THE
SITUATION IN AMBON / MOLUCCAS - Report No. 316
2002-09-09
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Ambon,
September 09, 2002
1. VICTIMS ON SAPARUA ISLAND AND IN AMBON In the early
morning of Sunday, September 08, 2002, three young muslims a
girl aged 12, a girl aged 13 and a pregnant woman teacher aged 27
were mysteriously killed by gunfire, while they were looking
for edible shells on the shore near their village of Kulur, island
of Saparua. When, later in the morning, their bodies arrived at
the Al-Fatah hospital, Ambon, emotional reaction by a large crowd
of Muslims could not be avoided, especially since the rumour
spread that the culprits were people from Porto, a Christian
village twelve kilometers South-East of Kulur. Consequently
several motor-cars with Christians, passing along the road through
the Muslim Galunggung area, Ambon, were halted by the masses and
thrown at with stones. An airport-taxi driver, Daniel Matulessy,
was killed; his body together with his car then was burned by the
frenzied masses. A woman in a preceding car, was wounded. There is
some confusion about whether there were any passengers in Daniel
Matulessys car. If there were, their fate is unknown.
Meanwhile the Porto village chief, John Aponno, denies any
involvement of Porto residents in the shooting at the beach of
Kulur. Local police precinct chief R.Nussy acknowledged that he
simply did not know who could be the killer. He said he had sent a
hundred Brimob police forces to Kulur in order to bridle any
further unrest and to do investigation on the murder.
Christians (and maybe also a number of Muslims) assume that the
killer of the three young people at Kulur is another provocateur,
who in this case apparently succeeded in reawakening the
horizontal interreligious conflict that, for a long time already,
had all but been overcome.
Thus a summary of a report by local Siwalima daily newspaper.
Up to now no reaction by Christians has been reported. Last night
the sound of two exploding bombs could be heard in the city of
Ambon.
2. SUSPECTS RELEASED Two people that had been detained
as suspects in connection with the bomb blast at the Lapangan
Merdeka field last September 5, were released by lack of evidence.
C.J.Bφhm msc,
Crisis Centre Diocese of Amboina
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