SAPARUA MY COUNTRY

SAPARUA

On going news

A list of news items from troubled Samaria
Christian leaders from the village of Sirisori Amalatu on Saparua island, the victim of several attacks by Islamic raiders, have told a terrible tale of Muslim warriors indulging in immoral sexual acts in the ruined shell of the local church, a building which they themselves had earlier destroyed. (7 November 2000)
The Christian villages of Ulath and Ouw on the island of Saparua were once more savagely attacked by mobs coming from the Muslim village of Sirisori Islam on Tuesday 24 October. Twelve of the villagers and two of their attackers were injured, five of them seriously. Most of the Christian villagers, particularly the women, children and elderly, fled from the violence. Two days later the villages were attacked again. Once more by thousands of raiders from Sirisori Islam. Tragically one resident and a policeman were killed in that assault. Local women and children hid in school buildings whilst their assailants shelled the villages, destroying five houses. Eventually the security forces drove back the attackers, but not before three soldiers had also been killed. (30 October 2000)
As the residents of the Christian village of Ulath prepared to go to church on Sunday 22 October their village was attacked by violent mobs coming from the Muslim village of Sirisori Islam. The raiders were eventually repelled by the Christian villagers and the security forces. However, their thirst for violence as yet unsated, they turned on another Christian village, Sirisori Kristen. Here a church, which had already been badly burnt in earlier attacks, was further damaged and several of the fifteen houses which were left undamaged from earlier raids were also set alight. (26 October 2000)
On Saparua island Islamic militants from Sirisori Islam continued to launch attacks against the surrounding Christian villages on Monday 9 October. At least four Christians have been killed, several others were wounded in the assaults, and hundreds of houses and a church have been burnt down. In one village little more than a dozen homes and two school buildings are left standing. Hundreds of locals have fled to other villages and the surrounding woods for safety. Eight bodies have been found amongst the rubble on the outskirts of the Christian village of Ulath. (12 October 2000)
The Islamic warriors who unleashed the horrific violence on Saparua were heavily armed with machine guns, bombs, mortars and grenades. Thousands of weapons were recently found when security forces in Ambon searched a ferry carrying large numbers of Muslim passengers, none at all when they searched a similar ferry with Christian passengers. Accusations have again been made that the military have not only armed Muslim extremists, but sided with them in the violence on Saparua. When security forces eventually did restore a semblance of order they began sweeping for weapons in the Christian villages, the victims of aggression, rather than in the Muslim village Sirisori Islam, the perpetrator. One Christian was shot and killed by soldiers during the weapons sweep. (12 October 2000)
Christian villages have come under attack once again on the island of Saparua. Armed Islamic extremists shelled the Christian village of Ulath with bombs and mortars on the morning of Saturday 7 October. Security forces managed to stop that assault but later in the day the same group launched an attack against the Christian village of Sirisori Kristen in which 15 homes were burnt down and one person was killed. Hundreds of innocent Christian villagers fled into the surrounding woods to hide. Further violence was unleashed the following day. Church services were suspended in two Christian villages on Sunday 8 October to prevent the launching of surprise attacks whilst the local population was at worship, a popular tactic of the Islamic militants. Elsewhere a soldier was shot and killed after a military raid to seize weapons turned into a bloody firefight. (9 October 2000)
The violence in Saparua began when the Muslim village of Sirisori Islam attacked its Christian neighbour Ulath on Monday 18 September. A police post situated between the two villages and designed to prevent them from clashing was burnt down. Four people were killed in the violence including a Christian man who was shot on the morning of Wednesday 20 September as he stood amidst the rubble of his home that had been destroyed the night before. (25 September 2000)
On Thursday 21 September villagers from Sirisori Islam unleashed another attack on a different Christian village, Sirisori Kristen. This time they were aided by Islamic extremists in speedboats who swept in from the sea. The raiders were heavily armed with machine guns, bombs and grenades. They killed three, wounded five others and burnt down over 40 homes. (25 September 2000)
The following day Sirisori Kristen was attacked again. This time the militants were supported by army and police units, and white clad warriors. Over 200 grenades were launched and more than 160 houses destroyed, almost the entire village. The devastated Christian villagers fled, hiding amongst the woods and streams. (25 September 2000)
The same day a similar number of homes were burnt to the ground and five people killed in the Christian village of Noloth after Muslims from the nearby village of Iha armed with mortars, grenades, spears, machetes and homemade bombs launched a vicious attack. Whilst Noloth was assaulted by land it was also bombarded by fire from a boat moored offshore. Muslims from Iha also rampaged through another Christian village, Ihamahu, the same day. Islamic militants clothed in white were again seen in this attack. (25 September 2000)
The following day angry Christian villagers from Noloth and Ihamahu united to launch a retaliatory attack on Iha. Eight people were killed, three injured and 80 homes destroyed in this tragic outbreak of violence. 470 people fled the island altogether finding shelter in the Islamic village of Tulehu on Ambon island. (25 September 2000)
On Saturday 23 September another Christian village, Pia, was the victim of an assault by Muslims from the village of Kulur and Islamic militants who arrived by boat. Five were wounded and a church and 74 homes were blown up as grenades and mortars tore up more than half the village. (25 September 2000)
This wave of appalling violence was triggered by the deaths of a man and a woman who were killed on Monday 18 September when gunmen in speedboats opened fire on a passenger ship which had earlier departed from Sirisori Islam on Saparua. (25 September 2000)
Similar retaliatory violence also occurred in Masohi on Ceram island, the intended destination of the unfortunate ship, where angry Muslims severely beat and injured three Christians when they heard of the speedboat attack. (25 September 2000)