Jelas masih berat di satu sisi. Mudah-mudahan kita intropeksi diri bahwa
sisi agama adalah hal yang paling mudah untuk diledakkan. Baiknya kita
sama-sama ikut meredakan segala macam kerusuhan ini.
Apakah bangsa ini sedang masuk kedalam era kegelapannya? who knows. Anak
bangsa sendiri bisa tega menghancurkan bangsanya.
peace.
Ramadhan Pohan wrote:
>
> Salam!
> Sampai kapan koran Amerika bisa fair. Provokasi tidak datang dari dalam
> negeri, tapi juga lewat konspirasi internasional seperti ini. Saya mendoakan
> semoga "Para Pattimura Muda" di bumi Ambon Manise maupun Nasrani Indonesia di
> AS ini tidak terpengaruh berita tersebut. Bisa jadi Gawat, man..:-)
>
> Apa komentar Anda ttg Berita The New York Times di bawah ini?
>
> salam!
> ramadhan pohan
>
> ############
>
> 40 Christians Killed in Revenge Riot in an Indonesian Village
>
> By THE NEW YORK TIMES
>
> AMBON, Indonesia -- At least 40 Christian villagers, including women and
> children, were killed in Indonesia last week, reportedly by a mob of Muslims
> seeking revenge for earlier clashes, officials and a local Roman Catholic
> priest said on Monday.
>
> The Rev. Cornelius Bohm, a Dutch-born priest based in Ambon, said the attack
> occurred in Telagakodok, 25 miles north of Ambon, situated on an island of the
> same name in the Moluccas, after Muslims in a nearby town learned that mosques
> had been burned in Ambon at the outset of the clashes last Tuesday.
>
> The official death toll from five days of rioting, which spread to outlying
> areas around Ambon and the neighboring island of Senana, now stands at more
> than 50, although local church and government officials say the final death
> toll could be much higher.
>
> With more than 5,000 soldiers and policemen deployed to restore order,
> thousands of people who sought sanctuary in army and police compounds last
> week are returning home to this once picturesque port town, parts of which
> look like a war zone.
>
> Along the waterfront among the ruins of the gutted three-story fish market,
> dogs scavenged in in piles of garbage, burned out kiosks and crates of rotten
> lobster. Municipal tractors and trucks were clearing roads choked with tons of
> debris, including burned tire barricades and shells of burned cars and
> motorbikes.
>
> Universities, schools, banks, shops and clinics remain closed, causing food
> shortages and creating fears of public health problems, officials said.
>
> The town is under military curfew, and the first group of journalists was
> allowed to visit on Monday to view the damage. The road between the airport
> and town passes through some of the worst-hit areas.
>
> Kelly Latuheru, 46, a Christian, emerged from the ruins of his home in the
> village of Nania, where in better times about 1,000 Muslims and Christians
> lived together harmoniously. Almost the entire village has been burned.
>
> "People from outside came here and started smashing things up," he said.
> "They went away, and we thought it was safe, but they came back and burned my
> home."
>
> Bohm, who has spent 32 years in the region, said the military had been sent
> to Telagakodok. Details of the killings, on Thursday, emerged last week when
> villagers approached another Catholic priest.
>
> All the victims were Christian emigres from the southeastern part of the
> region and included one pregnant woman, the priest said he had been told. He
> said other people had been decapitated or speared and hacked to death. His
> account was confirmed by a senior government official, who asked not to be
> identified.
>
> Residents and police and government officials said that at the height of the
> rioting, an unknown number of people were beaten to death near the waterfront
> and their bodies thrown into the sea.
>
> At the military police compound, 70 Muslims from 10 families have been
> taking shelter for a week from Christian gangs.
>
> Long-simmering animosity to migrants from other islands is a major cause of
> the Ambon violence. But some church leaders say Muslim and Christian
> communities, whose members have lived in near harmony on Ambon for decades,
> have been forced to take sides after other recent religious clashes.
>
> Indonesia's worst economic recession in 30 years, a sharp increase in law-
> and-order problems after student-led riots in Jakarta and the resignation of
> President Suharto have all contributed to the instability.
>
> Tuesday, January 26, 1999
