The New York Times

Tuesday, January 18, 2000

Riots Hit Indonesia's Lombok; Christians Flee

By Reuters

MATARAM, Indonesia (Reuters) - Fresh riots erupted late Tuesday on the Indonesian resort island of Lombok as hundreds of Christians sheltered with police or fled the latest religious violence in the troubled country.

Mobs numbering in the hundreds took to the streets on Tuesday evening, looting Chinese homes and burning a discotheque near the island's main tourist area of Senggigi.

Reuters reporters said the fires disrupted the power supply to hotels in the tourist area and the streets were enveloped in darkness. Police were sent in to guard the area.

Some 1,000 police and army reinforcements arrived in Lombok early Tuesday from Bali to help secure trouble spots. The city had appeared to be returning to normal before the evening's riots hit.

Monday's rampage left one person dead and 11 churches destroyed on the island's capital of Mataram.

``We have 50 Christians in our office. There are refugees at the other headquarters and at the navy base as well,'' one policeman told Reuters in Mataram, 20 miles east of the popular holiday island of Bali.

UNREST FOLLOWED PEACE RALLY FOR MOLUCCAS

Australia Monday warned its citizens not to travel to Lombok and advised holiday makers already there to stay in their hotels until the situation returned to normal.

``These riots could well lead to the destruction of the country's international credibility...I think it is obvious that the government has been too slow (in resolving the sectarian violence),'' the Antara news agency quoted leading Muslim intellectual Nurcholis Madjid as saying.

Witnesses said the riots in Lombok erupted Monday after a Muslim rally urging an end to Christian-Muslim bloodshed in the Moluccas, also known as the spice islands, turned violent.

Reuters reporters on the island said they saw isolated burning and looting Tuesday morning in the city district of Ambenan, about six miles from Senggigi.

In the afternoon, police fired warning shots to disperse a crowd that had gathered at one deserted house where they looted and trashed property.

Signs saying ``Death to Christians'' and ``Muslim Revolution'' were painted on several buildings. Shops pasted huge signs with the words ``Muslim-Owned'' to ward off possible attacks by anti-Christian mobs.

NON-MUSLIMS SEEK REFUGE

The official Antara news agency said more than 1,000 non-Muslims had sought refugee at military and police headquarters or simply fled to Bali.

Mainly Muslim Lombok also has large Hindu and Christian populations.

A hotel receptionist in Bali told Reuters several ethnic Chinese -- often a target of violence in Indonesia -- had fled to the island Monday night.

Residents in Mataram said rioters roamed the city overnight, when they damaged shops owned by non-Muslims, burning the merchandise on the street.

An official at Mataram public hospital said five people were being treated there for injuries.

Thousands have been killed in recent months of sectarian violence, much of it in the Moluccas at the eastern end of the archipelago where there were reports of further clashes over the weekend.

The violence in Lombok rattled financial markets on Tuesday, weakening the rupiah and checking the stock market's gains.