Back to Articles October 29, 1996 Web posted at: 5:30 a.m. EST (1030 GMT)
From Jakarta Bureau Chief Maria Ressa
SITUBONDO, Indonesia (CNN) -- Recent rioting in one of Indonesia's expanding cities has betrayed the growing pains afflicting one of Asia's most dynamic emerging economies.
The latest trouble began when crowds at a courthouse in mostly Muslim Situbondo went on a rampage over a trial verdict against controversial Muslim leader Saleh.
More traditional Muslims felt the verdict was too lenient, and a rumor that Saleh was hiding in a church sent rioters raging through the city's Christian community. Five people died and 23 churches in a 110km radius of the city were burned.
Now Christian services are held outdoors or in government buildings with military and police standing guard outside.
"The people had no faith in the court,the symbol of the state, and when the rumor hit, it was easy to trigger violence from a crowd like this," said political analyst Hotman Siahaan.
But many Christians see it in more personal terms. "All of the people feel the same like what I feel ... scared, and they're nervous, and they worry," said pastor Magdalena Manuhutu.
There is a feeling of being under siege among the Christians of Situbondo, a growing city about 750km east of Indonesia's capital of Jakarta. The population numbers a little over 500,000 people, more than 90% of whom are Muslims.
But many believe the issue is far more complex than religion, or the anger of a crowd over a court verdict.
A large percentage of Indonesia's Christians are ethnic Chinese. And although Christians only make up about 2 percent of the population, they own most of its wealth.
And if the rioting is not the result of class warfare, religious intolerance, ethnic fault lines or a combination of the three, there is always the theory that the government is behind the disturbances.
"The Muslims and Christians have lived in peace here for a long time. I believe the people are not guilty. They have only become victims. I think the military should answer who is behind this," said Muslim youth leader Khairul Anam.
His view is representative of people in the Islamic community who believe the riots were planned in an attempt to discredit the Muslim community and its leaders.
The military has been tight-lipped about the rioting, saying only that it is conducting its own investigation into the incident, which led to the arrests of up to 120 people, according to reports.
The significance of the rioting may be more far reaching than simply who is responsible for a local flare-up in ethnic, class or religious tensions.
The violence in Situbondo is part of a trend that includes East Timor's independence movement and the country's noisy democracy movement. These cracks in modern Indonesian society signal the country is leaving behind its sleepy past on the periphery of world thought.
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