Jakarta – The ethnic-Chinese community on the Indonesian island of Bali was urged to remain calm on Sunday after their homes were marked by unknown people trying to destabilise the tourist paradise, police and a report said.
Dozens of homes in the provincial capital of Denpasar were daubed on Friday – the eve of the Lunar New Year – with painted red and green crosses, Bali police spokesman Lt-Colonel Y. Suyatmo told AFP.
"The markings are supposed to mean that they have been targetted to be looted and burned ... but we are taking this threat seriously and have urged the Chinese community to remain calm but cautious," Lt-Col Suyatmo said by telephone.
The marking of the houses took place as ethnic Chinese began celebrating the Lunar New Year in Indonesia's main cities for the first time since the lifing of a 33-year-long Suharto-era ban on public celebration of Chinese festivals.
Most of the Chinese homes marked by the symbols were located in three predominantly-Chinese residential areas, he said. Lt-Col Suyatmo said the acts of intimidation "were committed by a group of people who are trying to stir up riots in Bali".
He said social harmony among ethnic groups in Bali was "very sound", but that the island had recently received "a large number of fleeing refugees from [disturbances in] other provinces". Regional military commander Maj-General Kiki Syahnakri was quoted by the Jakarta Post as appealing to both Balinese and Chinese Indonesians there "to be calm and not easily provoked by any kind of terrorisation or rumors".
The newspaper reported an anonymous letter had been circulating stating that red crosses meant the building would be burned, while green crosses indicated the property would be looted.
Maj-Gen Kiki said he had "instructed his subordinates to find those spreading the terror" so that they could be arrested, identified and questioned. He added that the provocative signs were also found on some non-Chinese owned buildings.
Ethnic-Chinese, though estimated at some 3.5 percent of the country's 210 million people, hold a disproportionate amount of Indonesia's wealth, and most are still recovering from the massive May riots which hit the cities of Jakarta, Yogyakarta and Medan in May of 1998. Similar painted signs were seen on some houses in Jakarta in 1998.
Last month anti-Christian rioting broke out in Lombok, the island next to Bali which is beginning to make its mark as an international tourist destination, sending hundreds of Christians fleeing to Bali.