About 20 of the dead were Christians and 10 were Muslims, according to a report from a British human rights group Jubilee Campaign. An Indonesian military spokesman insisted that armed forces intervened only to pacify the area, identifying the dead as 20 Muslims and 12 Christians. Witness accounts, however, including a local reporter quoted in the Italian newspaper Avvenire, say many of the dead were deliberately gunned down by army soldiers as fresh violence erupted between Christian and Muslim communities. More than 70 people were being treated for their injuries in hospitals....

Some observers claim the riots were started deliberately by militants intent on Islamizing the province. They include factions in the armed forces. In a statement, Jubilee Campaign says that

"... the process of Islamization is already well under way, with Christians forced by Muslim rioters to flee the Banda islands in southern Moluccas."

"The Rev. John Barr, secretary of Indonesia and East Timor for the Uniting Church of Australia, reported that although Indonesia is no longer prominent in the headlines of the American media, Christians in Indonesia and East Timor still face violence and widespread desolation."

	Brutal fighting between Muslims and Christians in the island of Ambon. Major violence over the Christmas period was anticipated.
	30 people killed and 2,000 Christians driven out of Halmahera Island. Their churches and homes were destroyed.
	Maltreatment and fear in Indonesian concentration camps.

Rev. Barr warned:

"Be aware that the vast majority of people in Indonesia do not support the terror and violence that has been going on. We should be careful with any criticism not to label or blame ordinary Indonesians. Many Indonesians have actually fought with courage and integrity to bring about change in their country. They have also stood in solidarity with the people of East Timor."

"Harming innocent Christians is a sin, Indonesian Muslim leaders said, rejecting demands for a holy war. Thousands of Muslim protesters are demanding jihad [struggle] against Christians in response for Muslim deaths in the Moluccas (a.k.a. Maluku) islands. Some 1,500 Christians and Muslims have been killed in the past two weeks, news reports said. ...'I reject jihad if it means to collect thousands of people to gather around and cry out expressions of hate to take revenge,' Muslim cleric Umar Shihab said. He is co-chairman of the Indonesian Ulemas Council, Islam's top official body in the country. War that is conducted in revenge is a sin, Shihab said. President Abdurrahman Wahid, also a Muslim scholar, also rejected the calls for jihad....A jihad against those who provoke violence against Muslims is allowable, and people who are fomenting the violence should be restrained, Shihab said."

"Hundreds of Muslims have died, some in mosques, in religious violence in the Moluccas (a.k.a. Malukus) islands. Scores of charred corpses reportedly were recovered from burned-out mosques on the chain of islands 1,550 miles northeast of Jakarta,
Indonesia, CNN said. 'It's very difficult to count the bodies,' which were 'torched and burned by unidentified people,' said Mursal Amal Tomagola of Medical Emergency, an aid group. Authorities believe nearly 1,000 people have died in the past two weeks after a Christian bus driver accidentally killed a Muslim boy. At least 1,500 have died in similar outbursts of violence since last January, CNN said. The Moluccas are traditionally Christian..."

"In a historic gesture, the president of Indonesia, Abdurrahman Wahid has apologized for violence carried out by Indonesian troops during the 24-year occupation of East Timor, specifically referring to the victims of the Santa Cruz cemetery massacre in 1991, when Indonesian troops opened fire on civilians on a funeral march."

"The most deadly attack came on the same day that provincial leaders were planning ways to stop bloodshed during the upcoming religious holiday season, when sectarian attacks often are sparked."

During the latter third of 2001-FEB, inter-religious rioting resulted in the deaths of at least 428 people. Aid workers estimate that up to 1,000 may have been killed. For many days, about 2,000 Madurese hid in the jungle; most were without food or water. Roving gangs of Dyaks slaughtered many of them on sight. The government was able to negotiate with the Dyaks to allow the Madurese to be evacuated to safety. Having received a government guarantee of protection, many Madurese came out of the jungle. But the Dyak Christians broke their promise and trucked 118 Madurese to a local soccer field. Six Muslims were beheaded. Others, including the elderly, women and babies, had their limbs chopped off and stomachs slashed open. None survived.
 

"No one was killed or seriously injured in the attack, according to The Voice of the Martyrs (Canada). But Muslim militants in Indonesia have killed 10,000 Christians in just the past two years, according to reports by The Persecution & Prayer Alert service of VOM."

"Black-masked assailants armed with guns, grenades and daggers stormed a village in Indonesia's religiously divided Maluku province Sunday, killing 14 Christians in a brutal pre-dawn attack that threatened a fragile peace pact. Shouting 'kill them all,' a dozen men entered the mostly Christian village of Soya on the outskirts of Ambon, the provincial capital and the focus of three years of sectarian violence that killed 9,000 people, witnesses said." ₃

2002-OCT-16: Maluku province: A peace pact has been signed between Christians and Muslims. Jafar Umar Thalib, leader of the Laskar Jihad group, has decided to disband his group and to pull all 3,000 of his Muslim fighters out of the Malaku province. ₄

Relative peace was eventually restored to the region.

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