Indonesian soldiers shot and killed a Muslim protestor and wounded four others on Friday in the troubled Maluku islands, which have been torn apart by two years of sectarian fighting.
Udin Sanaky, 34, was shot in the head when he and other Muslim protestors tried to break through a cordon of soldiers during a protest in the provincial capital of Ambon, a local journalist here said.
The protest was triggered by the killing of a 17-year-old Muslim boy this week in Kairatu, central Maluku by soldiers during a weapons seizure operation.
Kairatu has been the scene of at least four attacks by armed Muslims on Christian villages in the past week, in which churches and houses were torched, and residents forced to flee into the jungles.
A pregnant woman, Sumarti, said she was kicked and punched by soldiers during the incident, which broke out when Muslim residents objected to having their weapons taken.
The victims have been taken to Ambon for treatment.
"If our weapons are seized, we will have no means to defend ourselves from attacks," Sumarti told a local journalist from her hospital bed in Ambon.
She said Christians had killed 10 people in the area in the past month.
Conflict between Muslims and Christians in the Maluku islands, previously known as the Spice Islands, has left more than 4,000 people of both faiths dead and a trail of destruction.
In June, Jakarta imposed a state of civil emergency in the Malukus and the North Malukus, which allowed the governors to declare certain areas closed or under isolation, but it has so far failed to rein in the violence.
The violence has created more than half a million refugees, many of whom have fled to other islands and provinces -- AMBON (AFP)
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