On the afternoon of January 17, 2000, rioting broke out in Ampenan and Mataram on Lombok. The initial targets were Christian churches, homes and businesses which were set alight, ransacked and destroyed. It is believed that the perpetrators were fundamentalist Muslims. Rioting continued the next day, and that night some businesses in Senggigi were also attacked. In the days following the outbreak of violence, at least 4000 people left the island by sea and air. This included virtually all the tourists who were on the island at the time, expats, Indonesian visitors and Chinese and Balinese businesspeople.

Initial commentary linked the Lombok violence to the ongoing religious conflict in Maluku which had been raging between Christians and Muslims since early 1999, leaving hundreds dead and thousands injured. Later reports linked the sudden and violent explosion on Lombok to outside agitators who had flown to the island with the express purpose of stirring up trouble. More sinisterly, it was speculated that this was just part of a broader plan by the Indonesian military and/or other allies of ex-President Suharto to destabilize the country and provide apparent validity for a military takeover of the democratically elected government. The riot certainly came at a time when the government was rather vulnerable - the President was away on an extensive overseas tour at the time.

Whatever the truth of the matter, fears proved unfounded, and the violence on Lombok ended as quickly as it started. However, it left the tourist industry in tatters with zero occupancy of most hotels for several weeks afterwards, chunks of Ampenan reduced to rubble and the Lombok people deeply shocked by the speed with which their burgeoning economic well-being had vanished. An industry that had developed slowly but surely over twenty years was devastated in just two days.

But, fortunately for Lombok, tourist memories are short and within a couple of months visitors started to drift back and bookings were starting to rise again, although it remains to be seen how many businesses will have been unable to ride out the storm