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Tensions between Christians and Muslims on an Indonesian island group wracked by sectarian violence a decade ago are again reaching worrying levels, a think-tank warned on Tuesday.

The International Crisis Group said fresh tensions on the Maluku Islands needed to be urgently addressed after a clash last month in the provincial capital Ambon killed seven and displaced 4,000.

The incident likely inspired the suicide bombing of a church on the country’s Java island two weeks later as retaliation, the ICG report said.

“Old grievances are being dredged up, and a new narrative of Muslim persecution is taking root that needs urgently to be countered,” said the report, “Indonesia: trouble again in Ambon.”

Between 1999 and 2002, more than 5,000 Muslims and Christians were killed in frequent clashes that involved slaughter, savage mutilations and forced religious conversions, leaving Ambon split along religious lines.

“Since the earlier conflict ended, it has been almost completely segregated into Christian and Muslim communities, and everyone knows where the borders are between residential neighborhoods,” the report said.

Violence resurfaced in Ambon on September 11 when a text message circulated that a Muslim motorcycle taxi driver had been tortured and killed by Christians, a minority group in the Muslim-majority nation.

Police said the driver died in a road accident, but photos of the battered victim circulated online and raised suspicions about his death, with relatives saying the man’s body showed what appeared to be stab wounds.

Violence broke out at his funeral and gave way to two days of bloody clashes that included shootings, stabbings and severe beatings, prompting Jakarta to send in hundreds of troops.

Religious Strife a Daily Reality in Ambon

Agence France-Presse