BBC News Online: World: Asia-Pacific

Civil war looms in Moluccas

Local sources in the Molucca Islands say the security forces are now too divided to contain the violence, and many military units are openly fighting alongside the warring Christian and Muslim communities.

The conflict in the Moluccas is beginning to look like a full-scale civil war. Yet the central government seems incapable of responding in any meaningful way.
Five members of the security forces are among the recent victims.
One local Christian resident said Ambon had become a living hell.

Every day, he said, houses in his neighbourhood were being destroyed either by home-made bombs or mortars.

He described local army and police units as having completely split along religious lines.

Sniper fire

Two armoured vehicles had been firing into his neighbourhood, he said, and there was constant sniper fire. They don't even bother to take off their uniforms when they attack us, he said

The story from the Muslim side of this divided city is much the same. The main Al Fatah mosque, where most Muslim victims received medical treatment, said more than 30 Muslims had died over the past five days.

Earlier this week, four members of the security forces were killed when a group of heavily armed Muslims attacked and overran a police headquarters.

The government is now talking about declaring martial law in the Moluccas. But this seems pointless when the local commander has so little control over the troops already operating there.

President Wahid has also banned outsiders from travelling to the island. But that is a decision which will prove nearly impossible to enforce.

Earlier this year, the authorities made no effort to stop thousands of Muslim militants from travelling to join the conflict in the islands.

Only when the two sides finally tire of fighting will there be any prospect of bringing an end to a conflict which is already thought to have cost more than four thousand lives in just eighteen months.