BBC News Online: World: Asia-Pacific

Moluccas' governor faces sack

The President of Indonesia, Abdurrahman Wahid, is reported as saying he's going to replace the governor of the Moluccan islands, where hundreds of people have died in sectarian violence between Christians and Muslims.

President Wahid told the French news agency that the province's governor was no longer wanted by its people and so should go.

There's been speculation in the Indonesian media in the recent days that the governor Saleh Latuconsina would be replaced.

Meanwhile, the Indonesian vice-president, Megawati Sukarnoputri, has rejected suggestions that she's done nothing to halt violence.

She has special responsibility for resolving the conflict in the Moluccan islands, which has left more than one-thousand people dead in the past year.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service