Island Clashes Kill 10

At least 10 people were killed and the offices of the United Nations were set on fire Sunday when fighting erupted between Muslims and Christians in Indonesia’s remote Molucca Islands, authorities and witnesses said.

The clash broke out in Ambon, the provincial capital, during a demonstration by Christian separatists who advocate independence for the Indonesian region once known as the Spice Islands. An Associated Press reporter witnessed two youths hacked to death by a crowd of men wielding swords, the news agency reported.

Ambon Police Chief Bambang Sutrisno said that nearly 100 people, including two officers, were injured in the fighting -- the first major outbreak of violence in the region in more than two years. Dozens of people were arrested, he said, including many separatists who attempted to raise the banned flag of their independence movement.

The rioting sparked fears that the Moluccas could once again become the focal point of a major religious conflict. Muslims and Christians had lived in harmony in the island chain until 1999, when a clash between an Ambon bus driver and a passenger triggered a conflict that killed at least 9,000 and drove more than 500,000 people from their homes.

Extremist Muslim groups, including the Jemaah Islamiah terrorist network, rallied to the side of the Muslims and sent thousands of armed militants -- including some from as far as the Middle East -- to take part in the fighting and gain combat experience. The militants also used the conflict to raise funds in Muslim communities in Southeast Asia.

The fighting continued for three years and forced the two sides to withdraw to separate enclaves in Ambon and other parts of the island chain. The government negotiated a truce in 2002 that brought an end to the conflict. The two groups remained in segregated communities but in recent months had begun mixing in marketplaces and other public areas.

On Sunday, police said, hundreds of Christians celebrated the 54th anniversary of the founding of their separatist movement by attempting to raise their flag in dozens of locations and marching through the center of Ambon.

By Sunday afternoon, police had confiscated more than 50 flags of the outlawed Republic of South Molucca, Sutrisno said.

As the pro-independence demonstrators advanced through the city and reached the boundary between the two communities, they encountered a group of anti-independence Muslims who blocked the march. Some in the two groups began throwing stones, and the fighting quickly spread.

Rioters set fire to nearby buildings, including the offices that housed the United Nations Development Program, UNICEF and the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said Caroline Tupamahu, the head of the UNDP office. Also destroyed were the offices of nongovernmental aid groups, including Doctors Without Borders, she said.

Tupamahu said no U.N. staff members were harmed, but the offices were almost destroyed. She said she believed that the U.N. was not singled out but was on a street in the border area where the conflict broke out. About 10 buildings on the street were destroyed, she said.

“We cannot say that our office was a target,” she said by telephone. “It’s not just our office.”

Other buildings that were torched included schools, a hotel, a church, an airlines office, refugee housing, homes and a reconciliation center for Muslims and Christians.

Father C.J. Bohm, who has been in Ambon for nearly a decade, said hundreds of Christians had fled in anticipation of further violence.

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Sari Sudarsono of The Times’ Jakarta Bureau contributed to this report.