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Matt works with the Mercy Corps Indonesia and Timor-Leste country programs as a Leland International Hunger Fellow.
Location:
Jakarta, Dili, Indonesia, Timor-Leste
Recent Posts
Indonesia September 23, 2011 4:37PM
Old wounds reopened in Ambon
Matt Styslinger
Leland International Hunger Fellow
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“Ambon manise,” (am-bone mah-nee-say) muttered the bewildered project coordinator of Mercy Corps’s Spice Up the Deal Project, as we stood watching midnight fires erupt in Ambon City below us. Ambon manise means "sweet Ambon." The phrase is popularly used by local people to express pride in the beauty of their island — and city by the same name — in the province of Maluku in eastern Indonesia.
Photo: ANTARA News
As he said it, the project coordinator was part sarcastic, and part really worried about what might happen next. Sectarian violence — between Christians and Muslims — had broken out only 12 hours before, midday on Sunday, September 11th. Already there had been a few bomb explosions, massive riots killing a handful of people and injuring many more, houses and a police station burned down, and large parts of the city blockaded. And the situation was threatening to get much worse.
