Ambon, March 7-8 1999 (in English)

Ambon, March 7 & 8, 1999

Sala-Waku

Rioting in Ambon has broken out again, this time in the location of Benteng Atas. It started with the throwing of cocktail bombs around Silo Church. There were several incidents such as the killing of a Christian youth named Ritiau and throwing a knife from a car at the elementary students at Nania village. Most recently arms were fired at civilians by law enforcement on Saturday March 6, 1999, at around 3 a.m. in front of the Silo Church.

According to the information received from the site of the incident, from approximately 1:50 to 4 p.m. on Sunday afternoon, March 7, 1999, a crowd of 300 to 400 people (all male) gathered around Pohon Mangga region (next to the Judicial Court Office of Maluku), Air Salobar, towards Amahusu. They were apparently people of the Buton, Bugis, and Makasar ethnic groups. They had armed themselves with sharp weapons.

Around 7.30 p.m. there were people throwing stones from the Moslem villages to the Christians villages (Talakul Family) and later both sides were throwing stones at each other.

At about 10 p.m. the shouting of "Allahu Akbar…" was heard repeatedly from the direction of Benteg Atas Mosque. At about 11 p.m. on March 8, 1999, several Christians’ houses were burned and destroyed. Talakua and Embual houses were among those of the victims. The Christians later burned the homes of Butonese which are located around the State Television Station of Ambon. Both sides continued to burn each other’s houses.

Around 7 p.m. two Christians who came from Latuhalat riding a motorcycle were stopped and held at the Judicial Court Office of Maluku. The two unfortunate Christians were then brutally assaulted (cut and shot with arrows). Their names were:

1. Alfis Latumeten (right hand and the right part of his face were cut)
2. H. Timisela (injury on the right side of the head, lower lips and wounded by an arrow)

Both victims were in critical condition and are now being treated at the Government hospital in Maluku.

Because of the assaults, the Christian crowd at Amahusu Village became infuriated and burned 3 cars belong to Professor APA (President of the Darusalam University) at the campus residential area inside the Pattimura University, Taman Makmur-Ambon.

Around 9.30 a.m. a car with license plate DE454AU carrying 2 passengers who were suspected of being infiltrators was moving at high speed towards Batu Gantung. The car was stopped and destroyed by a crowd of people at Batu Gantung (in front of Rehoboth Church). The driver and two passengers were taken to safety by law officers.

Meanwhile, around 12 p.m. a truck coming from Tulehu got into the Passo Village with passengers guarded by the police. According to information from the incident site, suddenly there was a shot coming from inside the truck aimed at the civilian inside the guarding post at the roadside of Passo Village. The crowd became enraged and tried to chase the truck but failed to apprehend it. Along with that, another truck emerged coming from Tuhelu. That unfortunate truck was stopped and burned as well as a public transportation vehicle that happened to pass along the road. According to the information, three of the passengers who were Moslems were cut and died. As a result of this event, the police became angry and shot a Christian (Susilo Sukarno) in his foot.