Excerpted from: ERRI EMERGENCY SERVICES REPORT-EmergencyNet NEWS Service-Wednesday, February 11, 1998 Vol. 2 - 042

KARACHI, PAKISTAN (EmergencyNet News) - Ethnic mob violence in Karachi left two people dead and eight others injured on Wednesday. A 55-year-old Hindu riding a bus and a passer-by were killed by stray gunfire. Eight other people were reported injured in a day of hit-and-run rioting in the city.

Six policemen were reportedly dragged out of a police van and beaten. Two of them were seriously injured. Two doctors were also seriously injured when a mob set their car on fire with them in it.

Gangs of Pathans are said to have gone on a rampage to protest the alleged kidnapping of a Pathan girl by a Mohajir boy. The boy's family said the couple eloped, and no kidnapping took place. It was the first clash between the Pathans and Mohajirs since 1990, and authorities feared it could reignite simmering ethnic tensions. In 1985, a traffic accident that killed a Mohajir girl set off months of fighting that killed left about 1,000 people dead.

Police had to fire tear gas and live ammunition into the air to disperse hundreds of Pathans who blocked roads with burning tires in the Clifton section of Karachi. Mobs also threw rocks at passing cars and threatened Karachi's luxury international hotels.

Pathans are a conservative Muslim group who originate from the hills of northern Pakistan and Afghanistan. They are the third largest group among Karachi's 13 million people.

 ESR CLOSE UP

By Paul Anderson, ERRI Analyst

JAKARTA (EmergencyNet News) - Indonesian President Suharto has called on the military to clamp down on the rising unrest in his country. On Thursday, hundreds of people rioted in an Indonesian town and set shops on fire in protest against rising retail prices. The Jakarta stock market index plunged more than nine percent on news of the riot in the West Java town of Jatiwangi and fears that the government's moves to fix an exchange rate for the rupiah would cause more hardship.

Indonesia's litany of woes intensified on Thursday as scientists warned of a renewed threat of health-threatening smog over the region from an upsurge of brush fires in Indonesia. An official at the forest fire coordinating bureau in Jakarta said at least 51 bush fires had been recorded on Sumatra and 40 in Kalimantan, on the Indonesian side of Borneo island.

In Jatiwangi, hundreds of people rioted in the streets and set fire to at least five shops owned by the ethnic Chinese minority and some cars in protest against food price hikes. It was only the latest in a series of civil disturbances across the Moslem-majority nation of 200 million people. Shops have been looted and set on fire in several towns across Java and the islands of Flores, Sumbawa and Sulawesi in recent weeks after rises in prices of rice, cooking oil and milk.

President Suharto claimed that there was a plot by certain groups to destabilize the government. He told the country's military elite to "Take stern action against those who violate the law and carry out unconstitutional actions, especially those which lead to national disintegration."

ASIA AND PACIFIC

JAKARTA (EmergencyNet News) - Rioting continues in cities, towns and villages in Indonesia. On Thursday, more than 1,000 people protested against soaring retail prices and looted Chinese-owned stores and houses. The demonstrators then burned goods in the streets of two neighboring towns. The disturbances occurred in Losari and Gebang, located about 125 miles east of Jakarta.

Mobs in both towns reportedly threw rocks at Chinese-owned shops and destroyed retail market stalls. In Gebang, rioters are said to have also broke into several Chinese-owned houses and set furniture on fire in the streets. There were no immediate reports of injuries or arrests.

In the past month, more than a dozen towns on the main island of Java and elsewhere have been the scene of riots and violence over higher prices as the effects of Indonesia's economic problems hit the poor.

On Friday morning, a three-hour riot erupted in Losari. One policeman said, "There were more than 1,000 people. Some broke into stores, took out goods and burned them in the street." Hundreds of police and troops, including personnel from a nearby air force base, had to be used to disperse the crowds.

In Jatiwangi, located about 100 miles east of Jakarta, police arrested 16 people after 13 Chinese-owned shops were burned on Thursday.

ASIA AND PACIFIC

JAKARTA (EmergencyNet News) - Three people were killed and 154 detained in riots over rising prices directed mostly against shops run by Indonesia's minority Chinese, police and witnesses said on Saturday. The worst damage was in the coastal town of Pamanukan on the heavily-populated island of Java, where dozens of buildings including shops, places of worship and doctors' surgeries were set on fire or damaged, the Suara Pembaruan newspaper said.

Prices have soared in Indonesia because of the slump in the value of the rupiah currency and drought. Most of the shops attacked in recent weeks were owned by ethnic Chinese, who control much of the commerce across the sprawling archipelago of 200 million people and who are a traditional scapegoat during times of hardship. Chinese businesses have also been accused of hoarding, which the government has declared a subversive act.

ASIA AND PACIFIC

By Jeremy Zakis, ERRI Asia and Pacific Desk

CIREBON, INDONESIA (EmergencyNet News) - In new riots ignited by soaring retail prices, angry Indonesian youths looted, stoned and burned shops in Java on Sunday. As in earlier unrest, Chinese-owned shops were the main targets in Central and West Java towns where firemen, troops and residents fought blazes in shops started by protesters and looters.

Indonesian security forces said two people were shot and killed on the holiday island of Lombok on Saturday. The violence was away from the tourist areas. Residents in Pekalongan on Java's north coast said rioters had attacked shops there including a department store. Hundreds of troops are said to have quickly brought the situation under control.

In Patok Besi, a village about 50 miles east of Jakarta, more than 200 looters ransacked a Chinese store. Some ran away with stolen goods while others dumped stolen items into the street as onlookers cheered and laughed. Police directed traffic nearby but did nothing to intervene.

"The Chinese have put up the prices of everything way too quickly," one looter said.

In other towns around the troubled state, crowds picked through wreckage and stole merchandise from shops abandoned by their frightened owners. "All these economic problems are fault of the Chinese," a man in Pamanukan said.

Four percent of Indonesia's mainly Muslim population of 202 million, is made up of ethnic Chinese. A fraction of these Chinese are among Indonesia's richest people. However, small-town merchants complain that they're being made scapegoats for economic troubles.

"It's simple," said Ong Hak Ham, a retired ethnic Chinese history professor. "People get angry. They are frustrated because they don't have food in their stomachs. They need a channel for their anger, so they attack the Chinese in their town."

Since the rupiah collapsed in July, the security forces have been on alert for the expected violence. Rioting first flared on the eastern side of Java about a month ago and then has moved west toward Jakarta as pain from the economic crisis deepens.

Sweeping economic reforms and austerity measures under a $40 billion International Monetary Fund bailout agreed to in January have added to the tension.

Troops armed with shields and rifles patrolled other riot-torn towns on Java on Sunday. One soldier said of the rioting in the country, "We don't have enough forces to stop it." Indonesia's active armed forces amount to around 300,000, with another 174,000 police who are part of the military, in a nation of 17,500 islands spread 3,000 miles along the equator.

ASIA AND PACIFIC

By Jeremy Zakis, ERRI Asia and Pacific Desk

JAKARTA (EmergencyNet News) - Indonesia's new military commander played down the impact of recent riots on national stability as fears of fresh outbreaks started to cripple public transport across the country's main island of Java. General Wiranto, the former army chief-of-staff, was speaking to reporters on Monday at the palace, after being installed in his new post by President Suharto.

"National stability is going ahead well. There have only been a few places where stability and the restoration of the economy have been disturbed. That's natural. Every nation has its problems," Wiranto said. "There are rumours and speculation but let us say the rumours are garbage because they are causing restlessness in the community," he said.

In East Java, intercity buses between the provincial capital of Surabaya and the holiday island of Bali remained in their depots, leaving many residents stranded as bus drivers hid for fear of becoming targets on the roads.

Meanwhile in Lumajang, East Java, a mob burnt a warehouse on Sunday and residents reported the stoning of ethnic Chinese-owned shops in other centres.