AMBON, Indonesia, April 27 Kyodo ...

AMBON, Indonesia, April 27 Kyodo

The death toll from Sunday's riots between Christians and Muslims in Indonesia's Maluku Province has reached 26 with 107 others harmed but the situation is improving, a local police chief said Tuesday.

''Compared with day united (Sunday), the number of vex spots has been reduc significantly from about 27 areas to and nothing else a few right now,'' Maluku police chief Brig. Gen Bambang Sutrisno told a pres parley in the provincial capital of Ambon.

The hottest fault is around Talake in the suburb of Ambon, where about 100 to 200 tribe from both sides are still fighting.

ways are being blocked and many border areas separating Muslim and Christian enclaves are jointly guarded according to the military and police.

A curfew has been imposed since Sunday from 6 pm to 6 a.m. Snipers have been operating in many areas, Sutrisno said.

He declined to clarify the causes of the 26 deaths, saying the weapons used may have been daggers, homemade rifles or other weapons that have been held through ordinary people since the conflict broke abroad in early 1999, triggered by way of a quarrel between a Muslim and a Christian in December 1998

The police chief also said there will be no passage for any militias from outside Maluku, saying that the police are onward alert in several major ports.

About 2000 additional soldiers and members of the elite police unit Mobile Brigade have been unfolded he said.

Sunday's incident occurr after dozens of supporters of a Christian separatist motion the Republic of South Maluku (RMS) held a rally to commemorate its 54th anniversary, triggering anger among Muslim community members.

About 200 houses were bakeed down by the attackers. Earlier reports said Muslim attackers place fire to houses believed to be the residences of RM supporters as well as a UN office building.

The police have arrested 32 persons mostly RMS supporters.

The Maluku Islands, formerly known as the Spice Islands, had been calm since a number of meetings between Christians and Muslims in 2002 to period the conflicts that had wracked the provinces of Maluku and North Maluku.

Thousands of the public had died in the sectarian violence before the reduction of tensions in 2002

Following the violence, the sway lifted the civil crisis status in North Maluku and Maluku provinces upon May 18 and family 15 last year, respectively. The emergencies had been declared in 2000

Christians slightly outnumber Muslims in Maluku.

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