Around the World Indonesian religious violence continues MATARAM, Indonesia - As an Islamic prayer call echoed from a nearby mosque on the balmy tourist island of Lombok, a Muslim mob ransacked a house abandoned by its terrified Christian owners. "God is great!" a teen-age boy screamed as his friends pushed a car out of the garage and turned it over in the street. The crowd scattered when a squad of riot police arrived. Muslim mobs targeted Lombok's Christian minority for a second day yesterday, burning and ransacking homes in the main town of Mataram and forcing hundreds of tourists to flee. Security forces fired warning shots to stop one gang from storming a police station, where 500 Christians had taken sheltered. Yesterday's violence came a day after mobs burned and desecrated a dozen churches and other Christian places of worship in Lombok, 670 miles east of Jakarta. Some fear religious intolerance, which has gripped another part of eastern Indonesia for more than a year, has taken root in Lombok and could sweep across the sprawling Southeast Asian nation, putting at risk its transition to democracy. Yesterday, gangs torched two restaurants at Senggigi, on the island's west coast. Most nearby hotels had earlier evacuated their guests by sea ferry to the neighboring island of Bali, Indonesia's main vacation destination. There were no reports of injuries. In Mataram, small groups of people sifted through the ashes of burned churches. One of the largest, the Immune Protestant Church, was ransacked and charred inside, obscene graffiti daubed on its walls. "Be afraid pastor, the Muslims will drink your blood," was scrawled across the entrance. The words "public toilet" were written where an altar once stood. "Thousands of people attacked the church. They burned and smashed everything," said a man who identified himself by the single name of Fajaki. Neighbors said the church's clergy had left the island in fear. Lombok, a picturesque volcanic island of palm-fringed beaches and green rice fields, is home to members of Indonesia's three main faiths - majority Islam, along with minority Hinduism and Christianity. Hundreds of Hin barricaded their neighborhoods yesterday and carried spears and swords to protect themselves against possible Muslim attacks. "We must carry weapons to protect ourselves," said I Made Jaya, a Hindu resident. JJapanese cult admits leader's tie to attack TOKYO - Nearly five years after a lethal poison gas attack on the Tokyo subway, Aum Supreme Truth leaders admitted yesterday for the first time that cult founder Shoko Asahara was probably involved in that mass killing and other crimes. In a communique sent to news organizations and posted on the group's Website, cult leaders announced that Aum will change its name, "dramatically" reforming its teachings and selling off $952,000 worth of property to compensate its victims. Twelve people died in the sarin gas attack. and about 5,000 were sickened. The leaders said they will continue to view Asahara, who is on trial for masterminding the attack, as a "genius meditator" and a "spiritual being" but that he will no longer command the religious group. Government officials, cult victims and outraged neighbors of Aum facilities were unanimous in dismissing the statement as a ploy to evade a new law aimed at cracking down on the cult. "They can change their name, but their beliefs are no different," said Masao Shibata, 68, head of a volunteer task force of residents that is trying to kick about 15 cultists, including two of Asahara's children, out of an Aum-owned facility in the city of Otawara. "They did those (killings) calmly, and they lie calmly, so we cannot trust them now," Shibata said. "We believe they are still dangerous." Public security officials have applied for permission to place the cult under permanent surveillance. Senior cult members are expected to be questioned Thursday in an effort to determine whether the group still poses a threat that merits surveillance, seizure of its assets, or other counterterrorism measures. A decision to allow surveillance is widely expected as early as next month to quiet the public clamor for action against Aum - and to defuse local vigilante groups that have sprung up around cult sites. The cult has survived despite confessions by a number of members who took part in the March 1995 gas attack. So far, 162 cultists have been convicted, one was acquitted, and 33 remain on trial. Originally on page 2A in the 1-19-2000 issue of the Daily.