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AMBON - At least 13 people were injured as gun-fire and explosions rocked the eastern Indonesian city of Ambon early today after week-long Muslim-Christian clashes that have left 37 people dead. Thirteen people were taken to Al Fatah hospital with burns and injuries caused by home-made bomb explosions just before dawn after fighting in three areas — Tanah Lapang Kecil, Jalan Baru and Trikora, a hospital official said.
The city was generally calm later today with civil servants beginning to return to their offices and shops open. Residents queued at banks to withdraw cash. "We don't have cash any more at home and this will be a long weekend. "I'm withdrawing cash just in case," a woman named Poppy said. Monday is a public holiday. Maluku Bishop Petrus Mandagi said mobs torched 30 houses in a Christian area. He said he had appealed to the United Nations and the international community to help "protect the rights of Moluccans to live peacefully".
Mandagi also expressed concerns about the use of military-issue weapons by both sides in the conflict. "Their weapons seem to be sophisticated. I don't know who provided them. It seems that a certain group is playing a role in this," he said, without elaborating. A banned parade by Christian separatists sparked off the bloodshed on Sunday in Ambon, the Maluku provincial capital. The violence was the worst since a February 2002 pact ended three years of religious battles in which some 5,000 people died.
About 180 people have been injured. Hundreds of homes and many other buildings including the UN mission were set ablaze. More than 2,000 Muslims and Christians have fled their homes, according to one crisis centre. Those who stayed behind remained confined to their respective sectors of the divided city behind makeshift street barricades. Snipers have fuelled terror, shooting dead two paramilitary policemen on Tuesday and wounding a young man yesterday.
National police spokesman Paiman said in Jakarta that police in Ambon would conduct door-to-door searches for weapons starting today. The military said it would stop Islamic fighters from travelling to Ambon to inflame the situation. Thousands of radical fighters, including some from the al-Qaedalinked Jemaah Islamiyah group, joined the Muslim side in the previous conflict.
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