Jakarta – Occasional sniper fire and explosions punctuated a tense calm in the riot-torn eastern Indonesian city of Ambon Friday ahead of a midnight deadline for all Indonesian troops there to report to base, residents said.
Ambon, in the fourth day of a state of emergency aimed at stemming sectarian violence, was "a lot calmer," Hukom, a volunteer for the Indonesian Red Cross, told AFP.
"All police and military troops are required to report back to their respective battalions before Friday midnight, and perhaps that contributes to the calm situation here," she said. No reason has been given for the order for troops to report to barracks, but it is seen as a move to check the identities of deserters who have joined one side or other of the conflict.
The New-York based Human Rights Watch on Friday urged Jakarta to suspend from service and ship out all troops who have taken sides in the 18 month-long conflict in the region. "Soldiers have broken ranks and joined the fighting as partisans, and, as a result, Indonesian troops right now have virtually no credibility in areas where a neutral force is most desperately needed," the group said in a statement received here.
"There's an urgent need for a neutral force to intervene to stop the bloodshed," it said, adding that witnesses had reported direct participation by rogue troops in the fighting.
Hukom said many residents were still shunning areas with high-rise buildings because "snipers are still roaming through" them. "I don't know any civilian who could fire weapons as accurately as that," said Hukom, when asked who the sharpshooters were.
She also said the sound of gunfire and home-made bomb explosions could still be heard in some parts of the city, though state banks reopened their doors Friday. "For most of the day, the situation has been calm and state banks have reopened. The markets are busier compared to yesterday despite having barbedwire barricades on many streets," Hukom said.
The state Antara news agency quoted Maluku governor Saleh Latuconsina as instructing all government agencies and state enterprises in the riot-torn islands to continue their operations. "Those who fail to observe the instruction will be disciplined according to valid laws," Antara quoted the governor as saying.
The order came after Latuconsina criticized the head of Ambon's regional central bank, Garjito Heru, for shutting down the agency's operation and evacuating his staff from Ambon on Monday.
Violence between Muslims and Christians has left more than 4,000 people dead in Maluku and North Maluku in the past 18 months, with more than 100 people killed and hundreds wounded since June 21 in Ambon. The upsurge in attacks led the authorities to impose a state of civil emergency followed by a curfew in both provinces on Tuesday.
Lieutenant General Agus Wirahadikusumah, who heads the army's crack Kostrad strategic reserve division, was quoted by Antara as saying that "hopefully [martial law] will not" have to be imposed in Ambon and its surroundings. "I am urging people in Ambon and in Maluku ... not to be easily pitted against each other. The real issue is how to let go all the vengeance, disappointment and anger," Antara quoted him as saying in Singosari, East Java. Wirahadikusumah also proposed a six-month rotation of troops deployed in Ambon to keep them from being "influenced by any groups."