Moluccan Violence Reportedly Leaves at Least 20 Dead

Indonesian troops joined Muslim militants in street battles with Christian gangs in the Molucca Islands, leaving at least 20 people dead and hundreds of buildings destroyed, according to witness accounts and news footage shown Sunday.

Risad, a Protestant Church Hospital official who, like many Indonesians, uses only one name, said 13 Muslims and seven Christians were killed. Hundreds of houses and a church were burned as fighting continued through Saturday night and into Sunday, he said.

Nearly 4,000 people have died in 18 months of sectarian violence in the Moluccas, 1,600 miles northeast of Jakarta, the Indonesian capital.

Muslims make up about 90% of Indonesia’s 210 million people, but Christians are in the majority in many parts of the Moluccas.

Risad said the military is incapable of stopping the violence.

“Please tell the United Nations to help us,” he said in a telephone interview from Ambon, the region’s main city.

Risad accused some in the armed forces of taking sides in the conflict and said many of the Muslim militants were being armed by the military.

Animosity between the two religious groups has been stoked by an influx of Muslim migrants from other parts of the country.