The Jakarta Post, March 27, 2003
Peace in Poso still fragile
Ridwan Max Sijabat, The Jakarta Post, Poso, Central Sulawesi
Despite the calm in Poso since the signing of the Malino accord, peace in the Central
Sulawesi regency is still so fragile that it could easily be shattered.
The 10-point Malino peace accord -- signed in South Sulawesi on Dec. 21, 2001 after
three years of sectarian conflict that claimed more than 2,000 lives -- has yet to be
fully implemented by the Muslim and Christian camps, security authorities and the
local administration.
In a meeting between local officials and religious figures, which Vice President
Hamzah attended on Wednesday, Central Sulawesi Governor Aminuddin Ponulele
and Poso Regent Abdul Muin Pusadan conceded that underlying tension was still
evident and threatened peace there and called on the central government to maintain
the presence of thousands of police and military personnel in the regency.
Pusadan said his administration could not work effectively because the task force
representing the Muslim and Christian sides had yet to work optimally to promote the
Malino peace accord and encourage them to reconcile.
Central Sulawesi Police chief Brig. Gen. Taufik Ridha said the police in Poso had yet
to disarm militiamen from both camps. He did not know how many violent incidents
had occurred before or since the signing of the peace accord.
"The two groups in the task force don't want to investigate the law violations that
happened before and after the signing of the Malino peace pact," he said.
There are 11,000 people still taking refuge inside and outside the regency, but all
government aid to them was stopped in January 2003.
"It is ironic that Muslim refugees won't to go back to their home village in
predominantly Christian Tentena district and Christian refugees won't to go back to
their home village in predominantly Muslim Poso," the chief of the local social affairs
office, Andi Azikin, said.
Andi also said that the task force should be tasked with convincing the conflicting
communities to reconcile in their own villages and both the police and the military
should gradually pull out from the regency.
Hamzah and his entourage, who flew in three helicopters from Poso to Tentena, some
50 kilometers south of Poso, spent only five minutes to visit refugees in the small
town, creating discontent among locals.
The Vice President received many reports on the fragile situation but gave no
suggestions as to how to cope with hurdles in implementing the peace accord.
B. Poradjo, 49, one of 2,000 refugees in Tentena, said he his family feared returning
home to Bategincu village in Poso because, besides the trauma of the conflict,
reconciliation had yet to happen in his village.
"I have built three houses since the signing of the peace agreement, but each time I
built a house, it was burned down," he told The Jakarta Post.
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