`It's like a war, everything is destroyed'

ETHNIC Chinese are forming themselves into defensive units to protect themselves from the mob violence now sweeping Jakarta, a young Sydney woman with family in Indonesia said.

``The police and military are not protecting them,'' said the woman, an Indonesian-Chinese office worker, who asked to be identified only as Paulina for fear that her family in the Indonesian capital would be targeted.

Her parents, three sisters and two brothers remained trapped in the badly-hit Chinatown area which had been targeted in anti-government riots in which mobs have rampaged through Jakarta.

``They have no guns but have armed themselves with knives and whatever they can find,'' she said. ``They have barricaded their shops and homes. Nobody has slept all night.

``It's just like a war there, my sister says. Everything is destroyed. The whole of Chinatown has been burned down.''

Paulina said her family had decided it was safest to stay where they were. The streets were too dangerous to venture into, roads were blocked and the airport was jammed.

``If they are Chinese, they are being hit and kicked and their motorcycles are burnt,'' she said.

``The mobs can't touch the president so they are taking it out on a minority.

``I'm very shaky. I'm trying to ring my family every hour or two.''

In Jakarta, prominent Indonesian Muslim leader Amien Rais has condemned violence by angry mobs against the ethnic Chinese and those of non-Islamic faith, a press report said yesterday.

Mr Rais, leader of the 28-million strong Muhammadiyah organisation, regretted the burning and looting of ethnic Chinese properties and religious centres by mobs in Jakarta in three days of violence.

``There is not a single word in the holy Koran that says that houses owned by ethnic Chinese can be looted,'' Mr Rais was quoted as saying by the official Antara news agency.

Several Indonesian cities had been torn apart by mob attacks in the past two weeks, claiming hundreds of lives and ransacking properties including shops, banks and vehicles.

A ``Yesus Kristus'' church in central Jakarta was burnt on Thursday by mobs, a witness said.

``They (looters) deserve to be punished,'' Mr Rais said. Demonstrations should be done constitutionally and not by violating the law, he said, adding that self-restraint must be exercised while pursuing the desired reforms.