Posted on 12/18/2001 10:12:47 PM PST by Pericles
Wednesday December 19, 1:24 PM
Gunmen kill nine Christians in Indonesian city
AMBON, Indonesia, Dec 19 (AFP) - Gunmen shot dead nine Christians travelling in a boat in the riot-torn eastern Indonesian city of Ambon, residents and hospital sources said Wednesday
Six women and three men were killed Tuesday, a nurse at the Halong navy hospital told AFP.
"The bodies of the victims have been claimed by their relatives, we're still treating one woman for gunshot wounds," said the nurse, who declined to be named.
All nine victims were Christians, a local journalist said, adding that speedboat services between two localities had been suspended.
Ambon's sectarian violence has often taken place at sea. On December 12, an explosion rocked a commercial boat carrying Christians in the same bay, killing seven people.
Last month gunmen in a speedboat shot dead three passengers in another boat.
Fighting between Muslims and Christians in the Malukus has left more than 5,000 people dead and created some half-a-million refugees since sectarian violence first erupted in the town of Ambon, on the island of the same name, in January 1999.
The conflict prompted the government to slap civil emergency rules in the Malukus last year.
Wednesday December 19, 1:55 PM
JAKARTA, Dec 19 (AFP) - Indonesian police believe an abandoned warehouse in Central Sulawesi province may be a former al-Qaeda training center, it was reported Wednesday.
National police chief General Da'i Bachtiar was quoted as saying officers in Central Sulawesi had located the warehouse while trying to find evidence of foreign terrorist groups caught up in sectarian clashes there.
"Because it's already abandoned, we do not know for sure whether it was ever used or not," Bachtiar was quoted by the Tempo newspaper as saying.
Tempo said the warehouse was found in the hinterland 15 kilometersmiles) from Poso.
"There is nothing else there other than a house that seems to have been used as a residence. For the moment that's all the data we have."
National intelligence chief Hendropriyono had told journalists last week that international terrorist networks may have been behind renewed Muslim-Christian clashes near the troubled Sulawesi town of Poso.
Asked if he was referring to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network, he replied in the affirmative.
The three-star general later told national radio that al-Qaeda fighters had trained near Poso some two years ago, but that their camps had been long abandoned.
An unnamed intelligence source told the daily that Hendropriyono's comments were based on claims made by an arrested al-Qaeda operative in Spain named Abu Dharar, who told a Spanish court last month that he had once visited several training camps near Poso.
Bachtiar said so far police had uncovered no evidence to back Hendropriyono's statement that there were indications of foreign terrorist role in the Muslim Christian clashes, but they were investigating.
"This is an intelligence report which we must cross-check," the police chief said.
Hendropriyono has since denied saying al-Qaeda had a hand in recent Muslim attacks on Christians near Poso.
Indonesia was omitted from a list of 45 countries published by Washington last week outlining where al-Qaeda was believed to have a presence.
A US official however told AFP the list, compiled over a month ago, was not intended as a definitive, exclusive one.
At least the victims were not tortured or beheaded.
Does anyone think that the Christians in Ambon are doing any of the rioting?
Plus these imbeciles killed off 1,000,000 of their own during Iran/Iraq war complete with poison gas. Yet Musli can only babble about Sabra/Shatila. The Musli psychorabble.
The Christians would defend themselves if given weapons; the terrorists are cowards who would be more careful about attacking if they thought their victims were armed and dangerous.
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