Salam!
Sampai kapan koran Amerika bisa fair. Provokasi tidak datang dari dalam
negeri, tapi juga lewat konspirasi internasional seperti ini. Saya mendoakan
semoga "Para Pattimura Muda" di bumi Ambon Manise maupun Nasrani Indonesia di
AS ini tidak terpengaruh berita tersebut. Bisa jadi Gawat, man..:-)
Apa komentar Anda ttg Berita The New York Times di bawah ini?
salam!
ramadhan pohan
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40 Christians Killed in Revenge Riot in an Indonesian Village
By THE NEW YORK TIMES
AMBON, Indonesia -- At least 40 Christian villagers, including women and
children, were killed in Indonesia last week, reportedly by a mob of Muslims
seeking revenge for earlier clashes, officials and a local Roman Catholic
priest said on Monday.
The Rev. Cornelius Bohm, a Dutch-born priest based in Ambon, said the attack
occurred in Telagakodok, 25 miles north of Ambon, situated on an island of the
same name in the Moluccas, after Muslims in a nearby town learned that mosques
had been burned in Ambon at the outset of the clashes last Tuesday.
The official death toll from five days of rioting, which spread to outlying
areas around Ambon and the neighboring island of Senana, now stands at more
than 50, although local church and government officials say the final death
toll could be much higher.
With more than 5,000 soldiers and policemen deployed to restore order,
thousands of people who sought sanctuary in army and police compounds last
week are returning home to this once picturesque port town, parts of which
look like a war zone.
Along the waterfront among the ruins of the gutted three-story fish market,
dogs scavenged in in piles of garbage, burned out kiosks and crates of rotten
lobster. Municipal tractors and trucks were clearing roads choked with tons of
debris, including burned tire barricades and shells of burned cars and
motorbikes.
Universities, schools, banks, shops and clinics remain closed, causing food
shortages and creating fears of public health problems, officials said.
The town is under military curfew, and the first group of journalists was
allowed to visit on Monday to view the damage. The road between the airport
and town passes through some of the worst-hit areas.
Kelly Latuheru, 46, a Christian, emerged from the ruins of his home in the
village of Nania, where in better times about 1,000 Muslims and Christians
lived together harmoniously. Almost the entire village has been burned.
"People from outside came here and started smashing things up," he said.
"They went away, and we thought it was safe, but they came back and burned my
home."
Bohm, who has spent 32 years in the region, said the military had been sent
to Telagakodok. Details of the killings, on Thursday, emerged last week when
villagers approached another Catholic priest.
All the victims were Christian emigres from the southeastern part of the
region and included one pregnant woman, the priest said he had been told. He
said other people had been decapitated or speared and hacked to death. His
account was confirmed by a senior government official, who asked not to be
identified.
Residents and police and government officials said that at the height of the
rioting, an unknown number of people were beaten to death near the waterfront
and their bodies thrown into the sea.
At the military police compound, 70 Muslims from 10 families have been
taking shelter for a week from Christian gangs.
Long-simmering animosity to migrants from other islands is a major cause of
the Ambon violence. But some church leaders say Muslim and Christian
communities, whose members have lived in near harmony on Ambon for decades,
have been forced to take sides after other recent religious clashes.
Indonesia's worst economic recession in 30 years, a sharp increase in law-
and-order problems after student-led riots in Jakarta and the resignation of
President Suharto have all contributed to the instability.
Tuesday, January 26, 1999
