OCT 12 1996
By Paul Jacob Indonesia Correspondent
JAKARTA -- The Indonesian government announced the detention of an unspecified number of people after crowds rioted in the East Java town of Situbondo, burned and damaged churches and orphanages, looted shops and left five people dead.
State Secretary Moerdiono, in a briefing at the Presidential Palace late yesterday evening, said the government regretted the incident and would apply the full weight of the law against those involved in the unrest.
The rioting broke out on Thursday after a court in the town handed down a five-year jail term against a man, a Muslim identified only as Saleh, after he was found guilty of insulting Islam.
Community and church sources in the town, about 120 km south-east of Surabaya, said a crowd of up to 3,000 people appeared to have been angered by the lightness of the sentence and set fire to the courthouse.
Unrest then spread throughout the town, with mobs attacking more than a dozen churches, Catholic and Protestant schools, shops, theatres, amusement centres, offices and even orphanages.
One report received here said that the bodies of the five who died were found on Thursday in the rubble of a burnt-out church.
There has been no official confirmation of their identities, but the report said they were a priest, his wife, a church worker and two children.
There has been no official explanation of why the sentencing of a Muslim for insulting Islam triggered attacks on churches and other property, including shops owned by ethnic Chinese Indonesians.
According to one source, the suspect in the case was the head of a Muslim sect whose teachings and certain remarks made against the Prophet Muhammad angered leaders of the more traditional Muslim community in the area.
Complaints were filed against him, resulting in the court case, with the verdict being delivered on Thursday.
Another source said there were indications that irresponsible elements incited the violence by suggesting that Christians had made use of the suspect to insult Muslims.
An assistant to Situbondo police chief Lieutenant-Colonel Endur Agung, contacted yesterday, said calm and order had been restored to the town and surrounding areas, although police remained on the alert for signs of further trouble.
Mr Moerdiono, whose briefing underlined the seriousness with which the government viewed the incident, said the unrest could damage "religious harmony which had been established, cultivated and developed" in the country.
He called on the public to restrain themselves and not to be influenced by rumours.
He said that religious leaders must increase their supervision of followers to ensure that there would not be a recurrence of such events.
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