Troops patrol Indonesian island after mob murders soldier

AMBON, Indonesia, Jan 25: Thousands of troops and police patrolled the debris-strewn streets of Ambon island Monday after a soldier was murdered by rioters who refused to hand over their weapons, reports AP.

Days of rioting among rival Christians and Muslims left at least 50 people dead, police said.

Baileo, a non-governmental organisation in Ambon, claimed witnesses accounts indicated that the death toll could be more than double that.

Police said civilians were helping security personnel search the ruins of dozens of burned out buildings for the bodies of any move victims.

The Jakarta Post newspaper quoted a local politician, Mohammad Kasubah, as saying a mob, armed with machetes and knives, attacked a 28-year-old army private on Saturday.

They slashed his face and stabbed him in the stomach.

Earlier that day another mob dragged five Muslims from a car and burned them to death.

Residents contacted by The Associated Press by telephone said the island's main city, also named Ambon, was quiet but tense Monday.

The rioting was the latest in a series of violent outbreaks that have wracked crisis-ridden Indonesia for more than a year.

On Sunday night, Indonesia's military commander Gen. Wiranto and prominent opposition leaders met in Jakarta and called for an end to the fighting.

"No one will benefit from the division of the nation," the newspaper Kompas quoted Wiraton as saying.

The military has threatened to shoot rioters on sight. "Ambon is calm now," said local police chief Col. Karyono S.

Fighting between the two religious groups has flared on Ambon and two other islands in eastern Indonesia since last Tuesday.

The area, in Maluku province about 2,300 kilometers (1,400 miles) northeast of Jakarta, was known as the Spice Islands in Dutch colonial times.

Police said at least 48 people have been seriously injured in the clashes. An estimated 470 homes and building were burned along with seven mosques and nine churches.

At the hight of the violence, an estimated 20,000 people sheltered at military bases, police stations, mosques and schools.

Karyono said many of those evacuees who had not lost their houses to arson had returned to their homes.

Local religious leaders have called for calm and reconciliation.

Security forces patrolled past shuttered houses guarded by wary residents with knives and clubs. Officers with loudspeakers urged people to go back to work Monday.

Despite this, most shops and offices remained closed.

Military transport planes ferried in rice, food and other essential commodities after several markets were reduced to ashes.

More than 100 foreigners - including Americans, Britons, Australians and Dutch - have been evacuated from the islands.