Ambon – Fires from burned homes smouldered and occasional warning shots rang out Thursday in the empty and tightly-guarded streets of Ambon, a day after renewed Moslem-Christian street battles.
"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.
He said the occassional helicopter hovered above the city. Some of the fires were were from the Wednesday fighting, and others were new.
The death toll from Wednesday's street battles was unclear, with some Jakarta-based newspapers reporting 10, others seven and others two.
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 till this morning there have been a total of 12 people dead," Doctor Ristianto from Ambons General Hospital, who coordinates information from all hospitals in the city, told AFP.
Meanwhile the national police swore in a new police chief for the Maluku islands, of which Ambon is the capital, and was reportedly preparing to hand over riot-control to Maluku to the army.
"The heads of the military are now in a meeting to discuss the command of riot control, which is going to be transferred from the police to the army," a duty officer at the Maluku military headquarters here said.
The head of the Maluku military command Colonel Karel Ralahalu gave no reasons for the command change when briefing reporters after the inauguration ceremony for the new police chief.
Deputy National Police chief Lieutenant General Nana Permana swore in Colonel Bugis Saman as the new Maluku police chief to replace Colonel Karyono Sumodinoto.
"[The handover] should not be interpreted as something which could worsen the riots that have dragged on all this time," the Antara state news agency quoted Permana as saying.
Armed Forces chief General Wiranto early this month announced the abrupt replacement of Karyono following nearly two months of unrest in the province that has left at least 200 people dead and devastated Ambon city.
However he did not elaborate on the casualties in Wednesday's violence, which erupted in six separate areas of the city, most fiercely in the downtown area where Christians and Moslems abttled with crude weapons and fire bombs.