ASIA/INDONESIA - Unexploded bombs found near a church: police alert, concern among Christians in the Moluccas, but people believe in peace

Tuesday, 26 October 2004

Amboina (Agenzia Fides) - “A new explosion of violence must be prevented at all cost. Christians are concerned but they are confident that the local police will manage the situation” Father Carl Bohm, head of Amboina Diocesan Crisis Centre, in Ambon in the Moluccas told Fides after 15 unexploded bombs were found on 22 October near Maranatha protestant church, the main non Catholic church in the town. Police in Ambon are on the alert, control is stricter as security forces patrol the area, although there is no tension between the Christian and Muslim communities.
“There has been no reaction from Protestant leaders or faithful. People seem to have confidence in the police force which is on the alert and no one wants more tension or violence. The bombs found are rudimental and this would seem to indicate that the attempted attack was not the work of organised criminals. Everyone wants to avoid more violence in the Moluccas. There are no details with regard to clashes in Sulawesi (north Moluccas), over the past few days. In Ambon Christians and Muslims live in separate districts but there is no trouble when they meet in markets, shopping centres, schools, public offices. We cannot foretell the future but our hope is that peace in the Moluccas will hold”. Father Bohm told Fides.
Father Bohm warns that violence in the Moluccas may be provoked by outsiders: “Police chiefs and some civil authorities are certain that individuals or groups in Jakarta encourage terrorists attacks in the Moluccas, to trigger another civil war. But the people of Ambon must not fall into the trap”, he concluded.
The Moluccas were the scene of a civil war from 1999 to 2002, in which 15,000 were killed and more than 500,000 were made homeless. The conflict ended with a peace agreement signed in February 2002 in Malino.
(PA) (Agenzia Fides 26/10/2004 righe 28 parole 285)


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