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Yield arms or be shot, army warns rioters

Source
Reuters - March 15, 1999

Ambon – Indonesian forces on the ravaged island of Ambon have been ordered to shoot residents who refuse to surrender weapons, a senior commander said.

"The security apparatus will take the policy of asking the people to surrender their weapons voluntarily at least three times," Colonel Karel Ralahalu told a news conference late on Sunday.

"If they do not want to, we will act firmly in the form of shooting on the spot whether to paralyse or to kill," said Ralahalu, military commander on Ambon. Witnesses said security forces on Monday were searching in six trouble spots around Ambon, 2,300 km east of Jakarta, and confiscating weapons. Over the weekend various crude weapons were seized.

Ambon city was calm on Monday with some schools reopening after recent violence. Witnesses said about 14 abandoned houses were torched on Sunday night, but there were no immediate reports of casualties.

Clashes between Moslems and Christians erupted on January 19 and have killed more than 200 people.

On Wednesday, tens of thousands of people fought pitched battles in the city centre using machetes, knives and Molotov cocktails, killing up to 10 people. One died in new violence on Saturday.

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