Ambon – Indonesian police Thursday handed over control of this riot-torn city to the army, after a day of pitched battles between Moslems and Christians that left up to 10 dead and scores wounded.
"The command and control for riot situations will be transferred from the police to the military," said Major General Amir Sembiring, commander of the army's Trikora division, which overseas the Maluku islands.
Sembiring said the decision was made by the Maluku governor, adding "the Maluku police and its utilities are not appropriate for the task."
But he said that, with almost a full brigade – about 2,100 troops – in the province, there was no need to put Maluku under a civil emergency.
In Jakarta, Justice Minister Muladi said the transfer of power did not mean a state of emergency in the Malukus, where more than 200 have died since the violence erupted in mid-January.
"In line with the constitution, only the president can declare a state of 'civil emergency', if other conventional methods could no longer work and the situation is worsening," Muladi said.
He said that should an emergency be declared, there would be a night curfew, identity checks, press restrictions and other measures.
Meanwhile, residents reported scattered clashes in the wake of Wednesday's violence, which saw thousands of Christians and Moslems in the streets battling with crude weapons and fire bombs.
A spokesman at the Moslem coordination post, who asked not to be named, said three people were reported shot by troops in the city's Kalilau district Thursday, two outside a mosque and one in his home.
The report could not be officially confirmed. The spokesman said no Moslems had died in Wednesday's street fighting.
But Peilouw, a priest from the Bethania Protestant church here, said nine Christians had died of stab and gunshot wounds since Wednesday and 23 others injured, "but I don't know how many people from the other [Moslem] side were killed."
"Since Monday until this morning there have been a total of 12 people dead," Ambon General Hospital doctor Ristianto, who coordinates information from all city hospitals, told AFP.
In the rest of the city, a tense calm prevailed Thursday, local reporters said, with scattered warning shots and instances of houses torched.
"There is still some burning of homes in the eastern part of the city at the Tantui village, but it is unclear how many homes have been damaged," a reporter said in the early hours of the morning.
Meanwhile, the World Food Program (WFP) warned in a report, a copy of which was obtained by AFP, that food shortages in Ambon were worsening.
"The entire chain of supply has been disrupted," the report said, adding that food imports had dropped by 75 percent as ships were afraid to dock and traders had stopped storing food "in stores that could be burned at any moment."
"Big shortages" could be expected "if the situation does not change in the [coming] weeks," the report, submitted to the government this week, said, adding that the need for milk for children was urgent.
Compounding the problem was the fact that "Moslem and Christian zones are mixed and to join one place both Christian and Moslem areas must be passed," it said.
"People feel unsafe to pass through 'the enemy area' and this creates a feeling of 'locked lands' from where they cannot go out."
The WFP said its survey of Ambon and the surrounding areas had been carried out between March 1 and March 5, and that it had counted some 33,000 displaced people, 18,554 in Ambon alone.
Some 3,400 houses had been destroyed and the biggest market and 700 shops burned or completely destroyed.