No suspects in Ambon riot: Police
Bagus BT Saragih, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Mon, 09/19/2011 7:01 PM
Maluku Police spokesman Adj. Sr. Comr. Johanes Huwae said on Monday that investigators had not found any suspects in the deadly clash that erupted in Maluku’s provincial capital of Ambon last week.
“Police teams, led by senior investigators from National Police headquarters, are still working on the case,” he told The Jakarta Post.
A riot broke out on Sept. 11 and claimed seven lives while 65 others were injured. Around 200 buildings were also burned or damaged.
The violence was triggered by text message rumors that alleged that a Muslim motorcycle taxi driver had been tortured to death by a Christian family. The bystanders had actually helped the driver after he had been seriously injured in an accident.
A preliminary investigation conducted by the National Human Rights Commission (Komnas HAM) confirmed that the driver Huwae said three teams of detectives were assigned to investigate the accident, the torture allegations and to determine who sent the text messages.
Separately, Komnas HAM chairman Ifdhal Kasim said the police made a poor effort to respond to and prevent the clash from becoming deadly.
Ifdhal said that the riot might have been orchestrated by politically-motivated groups.
Ambon was swept by Muslim-Christian conflict between 1999 and 2002, when thousands were killed and hundreds of thousands displaced throughout the Maluku Islands.
