On Thursday, October 10, 1996, 25 churches in several towns in East Java were vandalized and burned down.

Unlike the previous incident on June 9, 1996, these incidents occurred in several towns surrounding the township of Situbondo where the attack first started. They are Situbondo, Besuki, Penarukan, Asembagus/Banyuputih, Wonorejo, and Ranurejo. This attack came only months after the authority promised to find the perpetrators in the last incident and are still without significant progress.

Rev. Ishak Christian and his family had died as martyrs. They were burned to death inside their church in Situbondo.

Shortly after the attack Surabaya Christian Communication Forum released a statement ([English] [Indonesian]) regarding this incident.

• Photos testifying the attack (click here for thumbnail overview). We added new pictures on 1/12/97.
• Chronology of the incident [English] [Indonesian]
• List of casualties [English] [Indonesian]
• Articles related to the incident
• Discussions in FICA-Net
• Prayer action / Aksi doa
• Statements condemning the incident
• Observation from Project Open Book
• Donation for the victims [English] [Indonesia]
• The Report of East-Java SCCF's Activities and Rehabilitation Plan

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