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Troops wound at least 10 in riot-torn Maluku

Source
Agence France Presse - April 25, 1999

Jakarta – At least 10 people were injured when security forces opened fire Saturday to quell rioting mobs in Indonesia's riot-torn Maluku islands, residents and reports said Sunday.

"Ten people were hospitalized on Saturday evening, mostly with gunshot wounds. They were shot because they resisted orders to disperse," a resident who saw the wounded at the general hospital in Tual told AFP.

A police officer in Tual said that only one resident was shot by a soldier during a search operation in the Sion Protestant church Saturday evening after he resisted attempts to disarm him. "But it's calm at the moment," Seargent Jefry said.

The state Antara news agency reported Sunday that at least 11 people were injured in Saturday's shooting.

In the latest oubreak of sectarian violence between members of the Christian and Moslem communities in Maluku province, angry mobs from both religious communities rampaged through the streets of Tual carrying crude weapons on Saturday afternoon, Antara said.

The violence followed an attack by villagers in Tual the previous day which left three people dead, according to Maluku police.

On Saturday, the security forces fired warning shots but failed to quell the crowds, and finally opened fire into the crowds injuring people in the legs, backs and arms, Antara said.

The Jakarta Post on Sunday quoted Maluku military commander Colonel Karel Ralahalu as saying that at least three people had been killed and 29 others wounded in Friday's violence.

Ralahalu was also quoted by the Kompas daily as saying that the military had arrested a man suspected of being a provocateur in the Friday rioting in Tual.

Friday's outbreak of unrest in Tual was the third of flare-up since April 1.

The violence in Tual, in the district of Southeast Maluku, followed weeks of clashes between Moslems and Christians elsewhere in Maluku province since January.

The sectarian violence in the Maluku islands has left more than 280 people dead and forced some 30,000 people to flee the area.

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