Days of rioting among rival Christians and Muslims on the devastated Indonesian island of Ambon has claimed at least 50 lives. Among those killed is a soldier who was stabbed to death by rioters after they refused to hand over weapons. One of the latest batches of victims was five Muslim men who had been dragged from a truck at a Christian roadblock, hacked to death and their bodies set alight, with an outnumbered military patrol standing helplessly by. The unofficial death toll in the religious violence was put at more than 100.

At least 20,000 locals on Ambon were sheltering at mosques, churches and police and military posts after an Indonesian military Hercules evacuated remaining foreigners to Ujung Pandang, on the island of Sulawesi.

About 5,000 soldiers and police patrolled the smouldering remains of Ambon’s commercial and residential districts, trashed during days of fighting between Muslim and Christian mobs since 19 January 1999, but residents said armed gangs were still roaming back-streets and outlying villages.

Fighting between the two religious groups has flared on Ambon and two other islands in eastern Indonesia.

The lynching of the five Muslims came soon after Indonesia’s Armed Forces Commander General Wiranto toured the riot-torn capital of the Moluccas, once known as the Spice Islands, and issued shoot-on-sight orders against armed gangs and imposed a night-time curfew.

Officials put the death toll at 52, but Christian and Muslim sources said the official toll counted only corpses brought to hospitals and that many bodies had been dumped into rivers and the sea. The Ambon police chief, Colonel Karyono, also conceded that many more victims might be uncovered from within the remains of burnt out buildings.

A local aid organisation, Baileo, said it had already recorded 122 deaths and 145 people injured in the main city of Ambon, but continuing violence in surrounding villages meant the death toll would climb. "The situation is still very tense," a Baileo spokesman said. "People are too scared to leave their homes and we cannot go outside the town. In one area we cannot reach, at least 500 homes have been destroyed."

Indonesian newspapers listed the extensive damage, which includes the main market, scores of shops and hundreds of homes and cars. However, in an effort to prevent fuelling the explosive religious tensions, they made no mention of the destruction of eight mosques and eight churches.

Ordinary Indonesians are only too aware of the religious divisions and the terrible consequences for the nation if revenge attacks break out in other parts of the country. Reports from predominantly Christian Ambon identify most of the victims as Muslims. However, Indonesia is a majority Muslim nation, and this leaves religious minorities on the heavily populated Muslim-dominated islands of Java and Sumatra fearful of retaliation.

Police have confirmed the killing of the five Muslims. The five were stopped at a roadblock in a predominantly Christian area, despite an escort of three armed soldiers. The mob manning the roadblock demanded identity cards, which show a person’s religion, and dragged the five from the truck. Soldiers fired warning shots, but the men were hacked to death on the road. "They threw their bodies into a gorge, poured gasoline over them and burned them," an Ambon police officer was quoted as saying.

President B.J. Habibie announced Ambon was "under control" but one local resident contacted by telephone said: "The main streets are controlled by the soldiers, but the small streets and outside the city are still being patrolled by the gangs." Some rice was now available in the city centre, but much of the commercial district had been destroyed, he said.

(Source: Sydney Morning Herald and Associated Press, 25 January 1999.)