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Latest clash shows tensions still high in Ambon
Gutted: Ambon and Lease Islands Police chief Sr
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span class="inline inline-left">Gutted: Ambon and Lease Islands Police chief Sr. Comr. Suharwiyono (center) inspects the scene of communal violence in Ambon that broke out early Tuesday. Five houses were gutted and 16 people from both sides were injured in the incident. Antara/Izaac MulyawanA small brawl between residents degenerated into a major clash in Nusaniwe, Ambon, on Tuesday, in which home-made bombs, firearms and Molotov cocktails were unleashed, injuring 16 people and gutting five houses.
The clash between residents of Lorong Kolonel Pieters and Air Mata Cina broke out in the early hours of Tuesday. The two residential areas are separated by a single street.
The two sides began throwing firecrackers at one another, apparently in jest. However, when one firecracker landed on the roof of a house in Air Mata Cina, setting the house on fire, the gloves
came off.
Air Mata Cina’s residents began throwing more dangerous objects at their neighbors, including Molotov cocktails. Gun shots were also heard during the exchange, and one resident received a gunshot wound to the chest.
It would be hours before the police could disperse the two groups and set up patrols in the
neighborhood.
Afterward, the Maluku Police said they had confiscated two home-made bombs made from tennis balls filled with gasoline and fitted with make-shift fuses, and two Molotov cocktails and dozens of arrows, at the scene of the clash.
“After the clash, police personnel began patrolling the area and found explosives, including 20 arrows and a slingshot,” Maluku Police spokesman Adj. Sr. Comr. J. Huwae said as quoted by Antara news service on Tuesday.
The plethora of weapons confiscated suggested that the residents had been keeping stock, and that the situation could have escalated further, the police said.
The police have urged residents to hand over weapons and explosives, remain calm and not rise to provocation.
Ambon was devastated by sectarian violence between 1999 and 2002 when more than 9,000 people were killed and hundreds of thousands displaced throughout Maluku.
The situation on the eastern-Indonesian island remains fragile. A series of bogus text messages that circulated across the island in September triggered a deadly riot that claimed seven lives and left 65 others severely injured, according to the nation’s human rights commission.
