JAKARTA, April 26 Kyodo The death...

JAKARTA, April 26 Kyodo

The death toll from riots Sunday in Indonesia's Maluku Province reached 18 with 107 others hurted and about 2,000 additional soldiers and policemen will have been displayed to the scene, Indonesia's acting top security minister Hari Sabarno said Monday.

''That's the latest data we have compiled from four hospitals in Ambon,'' said Sabarno, interim coordinating minister for political and security affairs.

Sabarno told reporters that members of the elite police unit Mobile Brigade and a battalion of company s have been dispatched to Maluku, while another battalion of soldiers is being made ready for deployment

''But the situation has (eased), although commonalty still feel tense,'' the minister said.

The incident reportedly occurr after dozens of supporters of a Christian separatist mental action the Republic of South Maluku (RMS) held a rally to commemorate its 54th anniversary.

Muslim community members, angered by the agency of the presence of a police escort, began throwing stones at the cluster prompting the police to expand fire.

Muslim leaders reportedly said the attacks did not target Christian residents further RMS supporters. Witnesses said, however, that Muslim populaces also threw stones at a body of christians and a hotel owned according to a Christian.

Sabarno said about 200 houses were calcineed down by the attackers. Earlier reports said Muslim attackers establish fire to some houses speculation to be the residences of RM supporters as well as a UN office building.

Police have made 32 arrests, for the most part of RMS supporters, according to the minister.

The Maluku Islands had been calm since a number of meetings between Christians and Muslims in 2002 to completion conflicts that had wracked the provinces of Maluku and North Maluku from late 1998

Thousands of clan had died in the sectarian violence before the 2002 de-escalation of tensions.

Following the violence, the regulation on May 18 and tribe 15 last year, lifted the civil emergencies status in North Maluku and Maluku provinces. The emergencies had been declared in 2000

Christians slightly outnumber Muslims in Maluku.

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