By DAN ERCK

It started Saturday with a dispute at a gambling hall. A group of migrant Ambonese Christians found themselves pitted against the Muslim residents of a Jakarta neighborhood. The type of thing that might garner a couple columns in a local newspaper. Not in Jakarta, at least not now. Early Sunday morning, one of the Ambonese Christians (from the eastern Indonesian town of Ambon) evidently threw a rock through a window of a mosque. Mobs formed and rumors spread. Some people thought the Christians had ransacked the mosque and burned it to the ground.

It didn't matter that they hadn't. The situation spiraled out of control. The Muslims responded furiously, burning down the gaming hall and murdering six Ambonese, some of whom they held for "religious interrogation." The violence spilled over into other parts of Jakarta, leaving 11 churches burned or vandalized and scores of people wounded. "A small incident can escalate so rapidly in this volatile environment," says TIME correspondent Terry McCarthy. "It takes one spark to blow a situation out of control in Indonesia. This never would have happened six months ago. There's no sense of discipline now."

The military again appeared unable to do much to put a halt to the chaos. Soldiers tried to come to the aid of the overwhelmed Christians, but could do little more than guard the neighborhood and evacuate a group of the Ambonese from a nearby shopping center. "The military can't risk being seen as anti-Muslim," says McCarthy, "and they were hesitant to get involved because this was a Muslim-Christian confrontation--and Indonesia is 90% Muslim."

This latest round of violence comes only a week after at least 14 people were killed in anti-government demonstrations. Most of those deaths came from clashes between the military and student demonstrators. "The sense is that the security apparatus is no longer in control," says McCarthy. "It was part of the central dictatorship. But now the dictator is gone and the security apparatus is falling apart. This is part of the process of deconstructing the dictatorship." The question now, it seems, is when does the dismantling of the Suharto era end and the rebuilding of Indonesia begin?

R E L A T E D S T O R I E S : WAITING IN THE WINGS Indonesia: Almost obscured by the recent violence, the Muslim vigilantes who roamed through Jakarta say their time has come FALLING APART AT THE SEEMS As legislators meet to draft new election laws, students and troops clash in the worst street violence since Suharto's fall. The country's political future hangs in the balance