BBC World News, Wednesday, 19 December, 2001, 09:28 GMT
Speedboat attack on Indonesian ferry
Gunmen in Indonesia's Moluccan islands have shot and killed at least nine Christians.
The attackers, who were travelling in a speedboat, opened fire on a ferry carrying local
traders to an early morning fish and vegetable market in the city of Ambon.
A police spokesman said two other people on board were wounded.
Seven Christians were killed last week in a similar incident. Those deaths provoked
violent demonstrations by Christians in Ambon, who blame Muslims for the killings.
Clashes between the two communities in the Moluccan Islands have led to more than
5,000 deaths in the past three years.
In recent weeks there has also been religious violence on Indonesia's Sulawesi island,
where rival Christian and Muslim gangs have been in conflict since 1999.
At least eight people have died in fresh fighting in the last two weeks.
Thousands of members of the Islamic organisation, Laskar Jihad, have recently arrived
in Sulawesi.
The group has been blamed for conducting a violent campaign against the Christian
community in the Moluccas.
©2001 BBC
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