14 Christians Killed in Indonesia in Persecution - Interesting News

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14 Christians Killed in Indonesia

April 28, 2002
By MICHAEL CASEY

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Assailants in black masks hacked, shot and burned to death 14 Christians, including a six-month-old baby, in the religiously divided capital of Indonesia's Maluku province Sunday, threatening a fragile peace pact.

Carrying automatic rifles, grenades and daggers, about a dozen men yelling "kill them all'' stormed the mainly Christian village of Soya on Ambon's outskirts, 1,600 miles east of Jakarta, witnesses said.

They set 30 homes and a Protestant church on fire, and went from house to house, shooting into those that were occupied, witnesses said. Six Christians, including the baby, were stabbed to death and six others were killed in fires. Two more were believed to be shot to death.

The killings came two days after a militant Islamic group, Laskar Jihad, rejected the February peace deal, which was meant to end three years of fighting between Muslims and Christians here that has left 9,000 dead.

"It may be the end of the peace deal,'' said Christian pastor Cornelius Bohm in Ambon. "There is no doubt that it was Laskar Jihad'' behind Sunday's attack in Ambon.

Laskar Jihad share Osama bin Laden's anti-Western stance but its commander, Jafar Umar Thalib, has denied any links to international terror. The group could not be reached for comment Sunday.

A senior police officer in Ambon, speaking on condition of anonymity, said 14 people were killed Sunday. He refused to speculate on the religion of the killers.

Survivors said they initially thought the intruders, dressed in military camouflage, were soldiers carrying out a security sweep but fled when the assailants started tossing grenades and shooting at anyone who moved. Those interviewed only described the attackers as "terrorists'' and said they were unsure if they were Muslim.

"The scene is horrible,'' said one witness on condition of anonymity. "I saw six bodies burned so badly you couldn't recognize them.''

He said police were searching the burned homes for more bodies.

Later Sunday, security officers in Ambon fired warning shots to disperse a crowd of about a dozen Muslims, a witness said. They had gathered after seeing several banned flags of the mostly Christian, separatist Maluku Sovereignty Front being flown. No one was injured.

Tension has run high in Ambon since the Front celebrated the 52nd anniversary of a failed independence bid Thursday. The group flew its independence flags angering Muslims who responded by burning down a partially rebuilt church and threatening to resume attacks on Christians.

Bohm said Indonesia's government was trying to end the violence, but did not have the power to clamp down on Laskar Jihad and other Muslim extremist groups in the province.

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