On January 19, , as Muslims around the world were celebrating the end of the fasting month, a fight broke out on the island of Ambon, in Maluku Molucca province, Indonesia, between a Christian public transport driver and a Muslim youth. Such fights were commonplace, but this one escalated into a virtual war between Christians and Muslims that is continuing as this report goes to press.
Much of the central part of the city of Ambon, the capital of Maluku province, and many neighborhoods kampung in other parts of Ambon island and the neighboring islands of Ceram, Saparua, Manipa, Haruku, and Sanana have been burned to the ground.
Some 30, people have been displaced by the conflict, although the figure is constantly shifting. The death toll by early March was well over and rising rapidly as army reinforcements, brought in to restore order, began firing on rioters armed with sharp weapons and homemade bombs.
The head of the Christian documentation center in Ambon told Human Rights Watch by telephone on March 10 that eighty-three Christians had been killed between January 19 and March 9, , twenty-three of them at the hands of the military.
Nur Wenno, head of Muslim relief efforts at Ambon's largest mosque, said there were no precise figures on the Muslim death toll, but it was over one hundred. Questions as to who was accountable for the violence in Ambon and surrounding islands focused on three issues: Who started it? Why did it escalate so fast? What, if anything, could the government have done to halt it? And what should the government be doing now?
