Rioters Burn Historic Indonesian Church
Villagers and police in Indonesia said this week that rioters burned down one of Southeast Asia’s oldest churches in the recent wave of violent clashes between Muslims and Christians.
Constructed in 1780 by Roman Catholic Portuguese colonizers, the Gereja Tua, or Old Church, was on Ambon Island, in the province of Maluku, 1,400 miles northeast of Jakarta.
A Catholic priest was among at least eight people killed in the religious riot that erupted Jan. 21 in the twin villages of Hila-Kaitetu.
The village is home to about 3,000 Muslims, some of whom reported that all 500 of their Protestant and Catholic neighbors had fled in fear.
Ambon was the hardest-hit spot in the week of violence that also erupted on four nearby islands once known as the Spice Islands. Police and military officials said 56 people were killed, but some groups believe the death toll was close to double that. The destruction included seven mosques, nine churches and 570 buildings.
Authorities said that at the height of the riots, about 20,000 people found refuge on military bases, and in police barracks, churches and mosques.
Indonesia, with a population that is 90% Muslim, is the world’s most populous Islamic country.
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