Vaudine England, Jakarta – Hundreds of charred and rotting Muslim corpses are being bulldozed into mass graves on the North Maluku island of Halmahera, say aid workers, police and military sources. "It is difficult to count the bodies ... they were torched and burnt by unidentified people," said Mursal Amal Tomagola of Medical Emergency, a Muslim aid group. "We found most of the bodies inside the mosques that were also burnt," he said, adding the number of dead could run into thousands after two weeks of vicious communal clashes.
A military source in Galela town on Halmahera told a similar story. "We found most of the bodies in the mosques and the other bodies were found on the roads and in other buildings," he said.
Protestant leaders from North Maluku called for stricter security arrangements there and urged President Abdurrahman Wahid to facilitate peace talks between government, civic and religious leaders.
Armed forces commander Admiral Widodo Adi Sudjipto was booed by Christians yesterday when he flew to Ambon, the southern Maluku capital and site of a year-long religious war, after naval ships began patrolling the waters around the islands.
The idea is to prevent rioters from moving from one island to another and to help evacuate residents from riot-torn areas.
He left last night for Ternate, capital of North Maluku, where two parliamentary commissions will also head tomorrow to help seek ways to end the violence.
Fears the fighting would spread beyond the two provinces of Maluku and North Maluku are being realised.
In neighbouring Sulawesi, four people were found dead and more than 100 houses burnt after residents clashed with migrants from other islands.
Local military commander Major-General Agus Wirahadikusuma told the Jakarta Post that the fighting in Luwu, south Sulawesi, which broke out on Friday, was only the latest round of violence that has claimed hundreds of lives in the past few years.
"I hope the sectarian conflict will not escalate as is happening in Ambon," he said. In the former sultanate of Ternate, thousands of refugees are walking the streets looking for shelter.
Correspondents who visited Ambon at the weekend described a city devastated by a year of communal killings. One Christian man told the BBC the army should be withdrawn so that a final and decisive battle could begin.
In Jakarta, there is talk of deposing Ambon Governor Saleh Latuconsina and of replacing the regional military commander with a Hindu, while criticism of apparent government inaction over the crisis is growing.
Human rights activist Munir says his group, Kontras – the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence – and the Institute for Reconciliation and Peace have agreed to set up a humanitarian command post.
"This would be a peacekeeping team to bridge the gap left by the armed forces and build a bridge for inter-societal communication. It should be composed of people without any bias towards either side in the conflict," he said.
Human Rights Minister Hasballah Saad proposed the creation of peace zones in Maluku, adding he planned talks this week with Christian and Muslim leaders to seek ways to resolve the crisis.
"The best way forward is to create violence-free zones," he said. "And the armed forces must act objectively. Up to now, the TNI [Indonesian Defence Force] is involved."
Police say at least 1,500 people have been killed in the Maluku Islands since last January, but Kontras says several thousand have been killed in Halmahera alone.