End violence against Christians: Pope

VATICAN CITY, JUNE 28. Pope John Paul II today called on India and Indonesia to put an end to violence against Christian minorities in the two countries.

The Pope said reports from India were ``alarming after many attacks were reported lately against Christian communities and other minorities.'' These were ``the most serious, according to the country's bishops, since Indian Independence''.

``The wave of ethnic and religious unrest which has troubled the Indonesian Maluku islands since January 1999 unfortunately does not seem to subside,'' the Pope said in a traditional Wednesday speech before tens of thousands of people in Saint Peter's square in the Vatican.

Repeated attacks by Muslim extremists against Christian villages were claiming many victims and massive damage, he added. Some 4,000 people have been killed in 18 months of clashes between Muslims and Christians in Indonesia's eastern Maluku islands.

- AFP

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