---------------------------------------------------------- Visit Indonesia Daily News Online HomePage: http://www.indo-news.com/ Please Visit Our Sponsor http://www.indo-news.com/cgi-bin/ads1 -0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0 Free Email @KotakPos.com visit: http://my.kotakpos.com/ ---------------------------------------------------------- Indonesia Probes Massacre JAKARTA (Reuters) - Indonesian police are investigating allegations 200 Muslims have been massacred in a village in the remote spice islands, as Christians and Muslims continued fighting on Tuesday. A policeman on Ternate island, in the northern spice islands, told Reuters almost 200 people had died on neighboring Halmahera island already this week despite the arrival of thousands of extra soldiers in the area. ``Clashes happen on a daily basis,'' he said. ``Nearly 200 people have been killed in new violence in Halmahera this week.'' He said dozens more had died on Ternate. ``It's still tense out there, but Ternate is quiet.'' The official Antara news agency said police were investigating allegations 200 Muslims were massacred in the Halmahera village of Togolua on December 27. It gave no details. At least 8,000 extra soldiers had been rushed to the northern part of the spice islands, or Moluccas, in Indonesia's remote east in a bid to quell the fighting, Antara said. More than 500 people have died in just over a week of clashes as Christians and Muslims battle each other with guns, machetes and home-made bombs, said officials in the provincial capital Ambon, 2,300 km (1,400 miles) east of Jakarta. But the remoteness of the Moluccas -- covering 86,000 square kilometers (33,000 square miles) -- and poor communications make an accurate count difficult. Ambon was quiet on Tuesday as markets and some banks reopened in the once sleepy port town that now looks like a battlefield. Police say about 1,500 people have died in fighting between Christians and Muslims over the past year in one of mainly-Muslim Indonesia's worst religious conflicts. While about 90 percent of Indonesia's 200 million people are Muslim, the spice islands are almost evenly split, with about 54 percent of the almost two million people Muslim and more than 44 percent Christian. The violence erupted after a dispute between a taxi driver and a local drunken man in the main Ambon island a year ago. It has since spread throughout the scattered islands and the government, military and local community leaders have been powerless to stop it. Many blame shadowy outside provocateurs, but residents say the fighting is purely between locals enraged and bitter after a year of bloody violence. President Abdurrahman Wahid and his government are coming under mounting criticism for failing to stem the bloodshed. Elected in October as a unifying figure after two years of social and economic chaos, Wahid handed personal responsibility for resolving the spice islands crisis to Vice-President Megawati Sukarnoputri. Both recently made a brief visit to Ambon, but the government has yet to take any special measures or draft a new strategy. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Didistribusikan tgl. 4 Jan 2000 jam 07:37:28 GMT+1 oleh: Indonesia Daily News Online <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> http://www.Indo-News.com/ ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
