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Moluccas tense after blast
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BBC
World News
Monday, 29
July, 2002, 09:53 GMT 10:53 UK
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Moluccas tense after blast
Indonesia's troubled province of the Moluccas was tense on Monday
following a bomb blast at the weekend which injured 54 people.
Dozens of police officers and soldiers patrolled the provincial
capital of Ambon and the police have detained at least six
witnesses for questioning.
The Vice-President of Indonesia, Hamzah Haz, said that the
violence was aimed at destabilising security ahead of a
legislative meeting in Jakarta next week.
The explosion on Saturday rocked a market in the Christian
section of the provincial capital, Ambon, which has been plagued
by fighting between Christians and Muslims for the past three
years.
Following the bombing, police on Monday vowed to crack down on
those who keep fire arms in the province.
Timing
"There are some people who are trying to destabilise the
situation ahead of the (National Assembly) session," Mr Haz
told the national congress of the Nahdlatul Ulama, Indonesia's
largest Muslim organisation, as its closing ceremony on Sunday.
Indonesia's top legislative body - the People's Consultative
Assembly - will hold its annual session in Jakarta from 1-10
August.
No-one has claimed responsibility for the blast but Moluccan
legislators blamed extremist groups attempting to undermine a
peace deal signed by Muslims and Christians in February.
"Security has been improving, and the bombing proved that
there are groups who do not want to see peace," national
police chief General Da'i Bachtiar was quoted as saying by El
Shinta radio.
The religious violence in the Moluccas erupted in January 1999,
sparked by a minor traffic accident in the main city of Ambon.
The violence intensified in mid-2000, with the arrival of the
Islamic militia Laskar Jihad.
The group is accused of fuelling religious strife in the
Moluccas and central Sulawesi, and some analysts link it to Osama
Bin Laden's al-Qaeda militant network.
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