Curfew fails to quell riots in Ambon

By P. S. Suryanarayana

SINGAPORE, DEC. 31. Curfew has been imposed on Ambon and several other parts of Indonesia's eastern Spice Islands, but this does not seem to have quelled the inter-religious rioting that has been spinning out of control there for the past several days. The latest information in Jakarta today was that a huge fire broke out, after curfew, in the sensitive Muslim quarters of the Christian-majority Ambon, a key town in the predominantly Islamic Indonesia.

The fire, which broke out near Alfatah Grand Mosque in Ambon during prayer time in this holy Islamic month of Ramadan, forced residents to flee from the scene. According to one version, the fire was set off by a ``bomb'' hurled by someone from outside the ``dividing line'' between the Christian residents and their Muslim compatriots in the town. Another account was that the fire had first broken out in a shop and later spread elsewhere.

The latest estimate in Jakarta about the death toll in the Halmahera sector of the northern Maluku region was around 265, while nearly 70 others had died in communal violence in the Ambon region, in the past four or five days - in all, a total of under 350 (not 400 in three days of violence in Halmahera alone, contrary to non-official stories). The tense situation was also forcing thousands of residents to abandon their homes and seek shelter in military barracks and elsewhere.

U.N. apology on E.Timor

Even as the U.N. appointed a Filipino military officer, Maj. Gen. Jaime de Los Santos, as the Force Commander under the auspices of the United Nations' Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET), apologies were conveyed to the people of that territory on behalf of the world organisation.

The plea for forgiveness was made in the context of the perceived failure of the United Nations' Assistance Mission in East Timor (UNAMET), which conducted a ``popular consultation'' on Aug. 30 on the territory's future, to anticipate and prevent the outbreak of a carnage in the wake of a nearly 80-per-cent vote in that referendum in favour of that enclave's separation from Indonesia.

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