Back to Articles JAKARTA, Indonesia (Reuter) - The governor of the Indonesian province where thousands rioted last week, burning 10 churches and killing five people, has called for the attacks to be hushed up, the official Antara news agency said Sunday.
East Java Governor Basofi Sudirman, flanked by the province's military and police chiefs, told a news conference in Malang Saturday that the incident in the town of Situbondo Thursday came under the government's acronym SARA relating to sensitive issues of race, religion and ethnicity.
``(It) was purely a SARA incident ... Let us have the same aim when reporting it. This does not mean we will hide the facts, but this issue is very complex. Let us agree to hush up the problem,'' he said.
Antara said local security authorities were questioning 40 suspects after the incident. Officials said Friday that at least 120 had been initially detained. Sudirman said a crowd of between 2,000 and 3,000 people, angry with the proceedings against a man being tried on blasphemy charges, went on the rampage destroying places of worship, offices, schools and shops.
Security forces quickly regained control, he said, adding the situation had returned to normal.
Police said nine churches in Situbondo, four Christian schools, a convent and the court house were damaged. Other sources said a church in a neighboring town and six schools were destroyed.
The accused, a Muslim, had angered locals by saying the prophet Mohammad was not an envoy of God for all mankind. At his trial for blasphemy, prosecutors asked for a five-year jail sentence. But enraged locals, saying the sentence was too lenient and demanding the death sentence, rampaged through the town.
Indonesia is the world's largest Muslim nation with around 85 percent of its more than 195 million people following Islam.