LAKSAMANA.Net, December 14, 2004 02:55 AM
Palu Police Chief Fired after Church Attacks
Laksamana.Net - The police of chief of Palu, the capital city of Central Sulawesi, has
been dismissed for alleged negligence following attacks on two churches in renewed
religious violence in the province.
Palu Police chief Senior Commissioner Noman Siswandi was replaced on Monday
(13/12/04) for failing to adequately protect the churches, where a shooting and a bomb
blast injured five people on Sunday evening.
Unidentified assailants on motorbikes opened fire at the Anugra Masomba Church and
later detonated a bomb at the nearby Emanuel Church.
Provincial police chief Aryanto Sutadi told Agence France-Presse that Siswandi had
failed to follow a directive to boost police protection at places of worship ahead of the
Christmas and New Year period.
Sutadi said he had ordered that churches be guarded by at least four policemen, two
of them plainclothes.
Fierce communal clashes between Muslims and Christians in Central Sulawesi left
about 2,000 people dead over 2000-2002. Much of that violence was blamed on the
now defunct militant Islamic group Laskar Jihad and feuding factions of the Indonesian
Defense Forces.
The government in December 2001 sponsored a peace deal that largely put an end to
the carnage, and Laskar Jihad disbanded after the October 2002 Bali nightclub
bombings. But sporadic killings and bombings have continued in Central Sulawesi,
mostly targeting Christians.
In October 2003, masked gunmen killed 13 Christian villagers in Morowali and Poso
districts. The International Crisis Group blamed the killings on a new local Islamic
militia group, Mujahidin KOMPAK, which it said emerged in Central Sulawesi as an
offshoot of regional terrorism network Jemaah Islamiyah. It said most of the attackers
were locally recruited men, who had family members killed in attacks on Muslims in
May-June 2000 and were probably motivated by revenge.
Over recent months there has been an increase in communal violence in Central
Sulawesi, including a bomb blast that killed six people last month at a market in
Poso.
Also last month, a Christian village head in Poso was decapitated and the driver of a
public passenger minivan was shot dead.
In October, a guard at Poso's Bethany Church was shot dead. In July, gunmen killed
a female minister at a church in Palu and wounded four worshippers. In May, gunmen
killed a respected state prosecutor in Palu as he left another church.
The killings have fueled speculation that shadowy forces are attempting to provoke a
return to large-scale religious violence in Central Sulawesi, possibly in an effort to
destabilize the presidency of Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.
Yudhoyono on Monday ordered Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security
Affairs Widodo Adisutjipto and National Police chief General Dai Bachtiar, to intensify
security, especially in major cities and conflict-prone areas, to prevent further religious
violence during the upcoming Christmas and New Year celebrations.
"The president has ordered his aides to anticipate security problems in such cities as
Jakarta, Medan, Surabaya and Makassar," Cabinet Secretary Sudi Silalahi was
quoted as saying by state news agency Antara.
Widodo said the shooting and bombing at the Palu churches could be categorized as
acts of terrorism. He said police and intelligence agencies were taking measures to
unmask the perpetrators and uncover their motive for seeking to create instability.
Detikcom online news portal reported that police investigators had found nine spent
cartridges of 5.56mm bullets at the Anugra Church. The report said they were "false
cartidges" of state-owned munitions company PT Pindad.
Widodo declined to speculate whether the bullets indicated the possible military
involvement in the attacks, saying police would carry out further investigations.
Commenting on security preparations for Christmas and New Year, he said police
generally have the situation under control nationwide, although additional security
measures would be implemented in "problematic" areas.
National Police criminal investigation chief Commissioner General Suyitno Landung
said police headquarters will on Tuesday send a team of intelligence officers,
detectives and forensic experts to Palu to investigate the latest church attacks.
He said the team will inspect the churches and question witnesses, adding that local
police have increased patrols in an effort to prevent the perpetrators from the leaving
the city.
Vice President Jusuf Kalla said the shooting and bombing were linked to earlier
attacks on churches in Central Sulawesi by unidentified assailants on motorbikes.
The deputy head of state said he had urged National Intelligence Agency chief
Syamsir Siregar to work extra hard in investigating Sunday's attacks.
He also said the attacks were an effort to spark violence between Christians and
Muslims, but fortunately the people of Poso had not been provoked by the "acts of
terrorism".
Kalla acknowledged that Indonesia is facing difficulties in combatting terrorist attacks.
"We always try to prevent them by attempting to capture terrorist figures, such as
Azahari in Indonesia and Osama bin Laden abroad, but they remain at large," he said.
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