JAKARTA, April 25 (UPI) -- An explosion rocked the eastern Indonesian city of Ambon on Thursday, injuring at least two people and damaging a church. The explosion fueled rising tension in the conflict-ravaged Moluccas islands as pro-independence supporters marked the 52th anniversary of the separatist movement.
The national police chief, Gen. Da'i Bachtiar, said the matter was under investigation. No arrests have been made yet.
Government forces fired warning shots to disperse thousands of Muslim protesters.
Indonesian authorities arrested at least three people in the provincial capital of Ambon for hoisting separatist flags, marking the 52th anniversary of the South Maluku (Moluccas) Republic (RMS), residents and government officials said.
Military and civilian authorities in the Maluku islands have banned the hoisting of the RMS flag. Local church workers and security officials confirmed that a number of the flags were hoisted at several places in Ambon, including at the residence of separatist leader Alex Manuputty, who was arrested on April 17 for his declared intentions to hoist the movement's flag.
Manuputty, who is also chairman of the pro-independence Maluku Sovereignty Front (FKM), an affiliate of the RMS movement, remained in military police custody this week, charged with subversion. A conviction on this charge carries the death sentence.
"There are a number of RMS flags, and some other evidence was confiscated," the Maluku police chief, Brig. Gen. Sunarko D.A. was quoted as saying by the official Antara news agency.
Church workers told United Press International by telephone that they had heard of several people arrested for flag hoisting in Saparua, a small island off Ambon.
"All shops and both private and government offices were shut down," C.J. Behm from the Crisis Center Diocese of Amboina said in a telephone interview.
"The streets were deserted," Behm said. "What we can see are only security personnel on routine patrol."
He said the security personnel had blockaded Ambon's main roads.
Earlier this week, local authorities extended a night curfew in preparation for the anniversary. They have imposed a ban on the local and international media to prevent them from covering the situation in the conflict-ravaged province since mid-April.
The RMS was set up in 1950 by people loyal to Dutch colonial rule to stage a revolt against Indonesia, which had proclaimed the island-province independent five years earlier. The movement's supporters are primarily from the islands' Christian community.
The rebellion was eventually quashed, but small RMS activists, mainly those living in the Netherlands, have launched a campaign for international recognition for their movement.
The Moluccas islands, known during the Dutch colonial period as the "Spice Islands," have been wracked by clashes between Muslims and Christians for the past three years.
More than 5,000 people have died in the sectarian fighting, thousands more have suffered injuries. Property damage has been widespread.
A government-sponsored peace agreement was signed in February by leaders of both camps in a bid to end the bloodshed.
