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AMBON, Indonesia : Indonesia's security chiefs flew to riot-hit Ambon for talks with local leaders on ways to quell Muslim-Christian fighting which has killed 36 people.
Acting security minister Hari Sabarno, military chief General Endriartono Soetarto, national police chief General Dai Bachtiar and other officials met Maluku provincial officials and about 100 local leaders for closed-door talks at the airport.
It was not immediately clear whether they would drive into the city, where snipers and bombers killed one civilian and injured 11 earlier Wednesday.
Police say 36 people, including two of their officers hit by snipers, have died since a banned parade by Christian separatists sparked off the sectarian bloodshed on Sunday in the Maluku provincial capital.
The violence was the worst since a pact in February 2002 ended three years of religious battles in which some 5,000 people died.
Some 159 people have been injured and at least 200 homes, and many other buildings including the United Nations mission, were set ablaze.
SCTV television said about 100 more empty houses were torched Wednesday in one area south of the city centre.
Violence Wednesday appeared confined to that area. Daily life slowly started to resume elsewhere in the city, with some schools and markets opening and buses on the streets.
More than 2,000 Muslims and Christians have fled their homes, according to a crisis centre operated by a Muslim student body.
Those who stayed behind remained confined to their respective sectors of the divided city behind hastily-improvised street barricades, an AFP reporter said.
In the southern Tanah Lapang Kecil and Waringin districts, scene of most of the recent clashes, locals installed three shipping containers taken from the port to provide shelters from snipers in exposed spots.
Sporadic gunshots could still be heard from the area in the early afternoon. Locals said these apparently were warning shots fired to keep groups from other religions and police and troops at bay.
Despite the sniper danger, curious onlookers gathered on street corners.
The government of President Megawati Sukarnoputri, who faces a tough re-election challenge in July against two law-and-order candidates, has rushed 400 extra paramilitary police and 450 more troops to Ambon to prevent any recurrence of the 1999-2002 battles.
Thousands of Islamic fighters arrived from outside Ambon to fuel that conflict, including some from the Al-Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiyah terror group. Analysts say military elements trying to destabilise then-president Abdurrahman Wahid eased their passage.
Local police have come in for criticism for failing to crack down on Sunday's parade, which was seen as provocative to Muslims.
During the earlier conflict some troop and police units were accused of bias either towards Muslims or Christians.
A provincial government spokeswoman said more than 1,000 Christians protested at police headquarters to demand that troop reinforcements from outside Ambon be withdrawn.
"They say witnesses had seen members of the TNI (armed forces) involved in the torching (Tuesday) of the Nazareth church in Batu Merah," the spokeswoman said.
Sociologist Tamrin Amal Tomagola said the government had done little to implement the peace pact or address underlying social tensions.
Thousands of Muslims and Christians displaced during the earlier conflict still illegally occupy each other's homes, he said. Gangs of unemployed youths can be seen on the streets.
Indonesia's population is 87 percent Muslim but Christians and Muslims live in roughly equal numbers in the Malukus.
- AFP
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