Jakarta – Jakarta's ethnic Chinese community was asked yesterday not to make any overt displays to celebrate the Lunar New Year following a series of attacks on Chinese and Christian properties by Muslim rioters.

Jakarta Governor Suryadi Sudirja called on the ethnic Chinese community not to hold public celebrations of the Lunar New Year and avoid displaying Chinese paraphernalia, a report said.

In a written statement quoted by the official Antara news agency, he called on people "not to hold celebrations, theatre, dances and other art forms with themes from Chinese stories and culture, in public places".

Saying that the Lunar New Year was not a Buddhist sacred day but a Chinese one, Mr Sudirja also called on people not to celebrate the day at Buddhist temples.

He also urged people celebrating the Lunar New Year not to display ornaments, banners, flyers or symbols reflecting "the affinity of the Chinese ancestral culture".

Lunar New Year celebrations, he said, should be restricted to the environment of the family.

However, traditional red greeting cards, moon cakes and various ornaments, have been on sale for several weeks in many commercial centres, including Jakarta's Chinatown.

Indonesia's ethnic Chinese community accounts for about seven million of the country's 200 million people but the minority plays a dominant role in the economy.

Most ethnic Chinese Indonesians are either Christians or Buddhist and have been the target of mass unrest in various towns in the past months.

More than 100 ethnic Chinese and non-Muslim properties were torched or damaged during a riot by thousands of Muslims in Rengasdengklok just east of here, last week.

Similar targets were also attacked by a Muslim mob of thousands in the West Java town of Tasikmalaya in December. The rioting left four people dead.