Jakarta – A year of bloody conflict between Muslims and Christians in Indonesia's Maluku islands has left 1,134 killed, and over 2,300 injured, according to security forces.
More than 8,500 buildings, including more than 122 places of worship, were either damaged or burned as a result of clashes which erupted on January 19, 1999 on the island of Ambon and have known spread to at least five other main islands.
Maluku police chief Brigadier General I Dewa Astika told the Kompas daily that the dead included 17 soldiers.
A total of 15 battalions – equivalent to some 9,000 troops – from outside the province have now been deployed in what were formerly known as the Spice Islands.
Tension between the warring sides continued on New Year's eve and shortly after the region entered the new year.
In Ternate, the main town in the newly-established province of North Maluku, the sound of gunshots and the explosions of fuel bombs were heard minutes after the closk struck midnight, the Antara news agency said. Earlier on Friday a convoy of cars noisily toured the city's main streets displaying a severed head. Ternate has seen three days of conflicts opposing troops and supporters of the two neighhouring sultanates of Ternate and Tidore. At least seven people have been killed.
In Ambon, the capital of the Maluku province, a number of shops around the AM Sangaji commercial street were burning shortly before midnight and groups of people were seen gathering at street corners, Antara said.
Mobs carrying knives and machetes as well as Molotov cocktails and firearms, were also seen in at least three areas in downtown Ambon early after midnight on Saturday, sparking warning shots from security forces.
A residential area in Waiheru, on the other side of the Ambon Bay was early Saturday attacked by a mob from Leihitu on the northern coast of Ambon island, Antara said but there were no reports of casualties.
Hundreds of people have been killed in the last week in a round of violence sparked by the burning of a protestant church on Ambon. At least 265 people died in just three days earlier this week in Tobelo, northern Halmahera.
[On January 1, AFP reported that 500 soldiers from the army's Kostrad strategic command in East Java arrived on Morotai island to reinforce local security forces. One company of soldiers from central Java and two companies of police from Borneo were deployed to reinforce local security contingents following the clashes which began late on December 27 - James Balowski.]