President Vows to Detain ‘Hooligans’

Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid promised that security forces will round up thousands of people who he says are responsible for the sectarian violence in the Molucca Islands that has killed scores of people in the past week. While gunfire and bomb blasts echoed across Ambon, the provincial capital, Wahid told visiting U.S. newspaper editors in Jakarta, the capital, that those detained would include “hooligans acting on behalf of Islam. . . . We will detain thousands.” Despite Wahid’s tough talk, there was no sign of an increased security presence in Ambon as street battles continued to rage, residents said.