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Indonesia's spice islands tense as dead buried

JAKARTA: Villagers in Indonesia's bloodied spice islands buried their dead on Friday as Christian-Muslim feuding which has killed more than 300 people in recent days appeared to subside after raging through the night.

Rival mobs clashed overnight in the provincial capital, Ambon, a police officer told Reuters from the once sleepy port town, 2,300 km east of Jakarta.

"There were sounds of gunshots and buildings were set ablaze, but the number of victims are not yet known," said Lieutenant-Colonel Iwa Budiman, adding the fighting ended shortly before dawn and the city remained tense and the roads deserted.

Military officials and residents said more than 330 people were killed and hundreds of homes, churches, mosques and other buildings were destroyed in almost a week of fighting between Christians and Muslims.

The killings bring to nearly 500 the number who have died in violence this month in the Moluccas, despite hopes Christmas and the Muslim fasting month of Ramazan which began in mid-December would bring at least a temporary peace.

About 1,000 people have died in almost a year of largely sectarian violence in the islands, home to almost two million people and once held up as a model of religious tolerance in predominantly Muslim Indonesia.

Halmahera island in the northern part of the Moluccas was also tense on Friday as victims of fighting were buried amid a haze of smoke from still-burning buildings.

"Many of those that died yesterday are buried today," a military official told Reuters from Halmahera.

"Buildings that were set on fire in the past few days are still burning because of the strong winds and also because there are no firefighters in some remote places."

In another troublespot, the separatist province of Aceh at Indonesia's far west, the military said on Friday troops has killed a pro-independence rebel in a clash near the city of Lhokseumawe.

Local commander Colonel Syafnil Armen told Reuters the incident happened on Thursday night when guerrillas fired on a military patrol.-Reuters