voa标准英语2008-Indonesia Sends Troops to Quell Sectarian Violen

Indonesia has sent hundreds of troops to its eastern Maluku Islands to quell¹ violence that broke out between Christians³ and Muslims, leaving at least six people injured and dozens of buildings torched.

Local police say clashes broke out Tuesday, after a Christian² school teacher was accused by a Muslim student of insulting Islam.

Area has history of trouble

Sidney Jones, the International Crisis Group's South East Asian director, says the area where the fighting erupted has a recent history of trouble.

"It's an area that's erupted in differed ways, several times in the last two years, including a police army shoot-out," Jones said. "It's got a history of problems going back to the height of the violence, but it's difficult to see whether this is going to bring in people from outside."

Muslim-Christian clashes broke out in the Maluku Islands in 1999, lasting⁴ until 2001. Around 10,000 people were killed, tens of thousands of others were displaced and thousands of homes destroyed.

The violence, which pitted neighbor against neighbor in the formally peaceful region, was only stopped after a peace pact⁵ was signed in 2002.

Although sporadic⁶ violence has broken out since then, the region remains⁷ generally calm.

Analyst⁸ says watch out for Islamic militants⁹

Jones says, as long as Islamic militants based in Java Island stay out of the Maluku region, it is likely the area will stay peaceful.

"If it stays local, we're probably okay," Jones said. "And, one of the interesting things is that a lot of the people there specifically referred to the earlier conflict and not wanting to see it get out of hand. It's a case of whether or not some of these guys in Java take it as a green light to come in and scope things out. I think it'll probably be okay."

Police say the area remained largely quiet, Wednesday, with residents staying inside their homes, fearful of going out after Tuesday's clashes saw dozens of buildings torched, including two churches.

Indonesia has the world's largest population of Muslims, and - although the vast majority of the country practices Islam - in some parts of the eastern islands, Christians make up roughly half the population.

1 quell   

v.压制，平息，减轻

参考例句：

• Soldiers were sent in to quell the riots.士兵们被派去平息骚乱。
• The armed force had to be called out to quell violence.不得不出动军队来镇压暴力行动。

2 Christian   

adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒

参考例句：

• They always addressed each other by their Christian name.他们总是以教名互相称呼。
• His mother is a sincere Christian.他母亲是个虔诚的基督教徒。

3 Christians   

n.基督教徒( Christian的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Christians of all denominations attended the conference. 基督教所有教派的人都出席了这次会议。
• His novel about Jesus caused a furore among Christians. 他关于耶稣的小说激起了基督教徒的公愤。

4 lasting   

adj.永久的，永恒的；vbl.持续，维持

参考例句：

• The lasting war debased the value of the dollar.持久的战争使美元贬值。
• We hope for a lasting settlement of all these troubles.我们希望这些纠纷能获得永久的解决。

5 pact   

n.合同，条约，公约，协定

参考例句：

• The two opposition parties made an electoral pact.那两个反对党订了一个有关选举的协定。
• The trade pact between those two countries came to an end.那两国的通商协定宣告结束。

6 sporadic   

adj.偶尔发生的 [反]regular；分散的

参考例句：

• The sound of sporadic shooting could still be heard.仍能听见零星的枪声。
• You know this better than I.I received only sporadic news about it.你们比我更清楚，而我听到的只是零星消息。

7 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

8 analyst   

n.分析家，化验员；心理分析学家

参考例句：

• What can you contribute to the position of a market analyst?你有什么技能可有助于市场分析员的职务？
• The analyst is required to interpolate values between standards.分析人员需要在这些标准中插入一些值。

9 militants   

激进分子，好斗分子( militant的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The militants have been sporadically fighting the government for years. 几年来，反叛分子一直对政府实施零星的战斗。
• Despite the onslaught, Palestinian militants managed to fire off rockets. 尽管如此，巴勒斯坦的激进分子仍然发射导弹。