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Paras Indonesia, October, 31 2005 @ 12:40 am

Stirring Up Violence In Poso

"The government must place Poso to the same degree as Jakarta and Bali," a man demanded at a small protest in Budaran HI today (31/10/05). The man, Prama'artha Pode of Poso Morawali (Pos-Mo) Watch, was objecting to how the central government has paid little attention on the Poso blasts compared to that of bombings in Jakarta and Bali.

"There's no more religious conflict in Poso," he insisted. So many Poso people have made the same statement. Some even went further saying that there never was a 'real' religious conflict in the particular district. Many Poso residents though believe that the conflict was brought in from those outside of Poso (read: Jakarta) and maintained by them.

Last week two big Poso news made headlines. Fist it was the raid on a cult group that led to the deaths of police officers and cult members. Then came the disturbing story on the beheadings of three schoolgirls.

From the surface, the case of the cult led by a man named Madi was in a way like a repeat to the Ahmadiyah issue a few months back. In a flash, the beheadings also looked like another regular news in the ever-so-popular Post Kota.

But very few cases in Poso are regular.

Arianto Sangaji of the Palu-based Yayasan Tanah Merdeka was spot on in describing how irregular the Madi case was. In his article "Menimbang Madi secara Obyektif", Sangaji said that the cult was excess from the combination of injustice, misunderstanding, stigmatization, and systematic criminalization. The same elements could also be valid for so many other Poso-related violence.

Indeed if there was a link between the cult and the beheadings, Bernard Ndawu of Pos-Mo Watch said it was injustice. Madi and his followers were forced out of their rights of living. Plantations took their forests away. They then isolate themselves and started the story of a cult. And the poor girls? They for sure had their rights to live taken completely away. "They were murdered as they were about to study like us," said a Jakarta-based Poso student. And what for? Is it to maintain Poso as an unsafe sub-district? Who would profit from such notion?

Fortunately according to Ndawu, the people of Poso have since matured.

"They know that there is no such thing as religious conflict these days," said Ndawu. "That's why people don't retaliate, knowing the perpetrators are those from the outside."

For the same reason, Ndawu, Prama'artha Pode and others set up a group called Poso Morawali Watch. They were tired of the (intentional) slowness of the government and authority in solving problems in Poso and the Morawali area. The group can be contacted by email: posmowatch@yahoo.com.

After the protest in Bundaran HI, the group marched to the United Nations. "The Indonesian government can't guarantee the lives of the Poso people. We want to ask the UN to help pressure the government to help us."

Does it have to come to that? Prama'artha Pode was right. So much attention was given by the government to the Bali bombings (even though not so much progress made so far), but very little given to the violence in Poso. Maybe it is time also for the media to grow up and avoid injustice, misunderstanding, stigmatization, and systematic criminalization by reporting beyond the body counts.

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