The Jakarta Post, December 02, 2003
Reinforcements sent to probe Poso attacks
Irvan NR and Abdul Khalik, The Jakarta Post, Palu/Jakarta
The Central Sulawesi provincial police dispatched dozens of detectives on Monday to
the ravaged Poso regency to investigate recent attacks in two subdistricts here that
killed four people.
In a separate development, a home-made bomb was found on Jl. Pulau Nias in Poso
regency, adding to the already tension situation.
Poso Police chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Abdi Dharma said that the detectives had been
divided into two teams.
"One team has been deployed to Kilotrans village in Poso Pesisir district, while
another team has been dispatched to Marowo village in Ulu Bongka district," said
Abdi Dharma.
Kilotrans and Marowo are the two subdistricts where the attacks occurred on
Saturday.
The armed attacks killed four people and badly injured four others. The deaths and
injuries were caused by gunfire.
Dharma said that the teams were dispatched to the two subdistricts on Monday
morning in order to help local police expedite their investigations.
The teams, together with local detectives, then questioned witnesses and collected
evidence in the two subdistricts.
The detectives have so far been able to identify the physical characteristic of the
attackers. However, Dharma refused to go into details, saying that the police were still
investigating the case.
He acknowledged that police had difficulties in providing security in Poso due to the
limited number of officers available and the difficult geographic terrain.
Most of Poso was thickly forested, providing perfect cover for any would-be attackers.
They could quickly launch attacks and then melt back into the jungle, he said.
"We have tightened security in those areas that had been susceptible to attack, but
they simply launched their attacks in other places," he said on Monday afternoon.
Since the attack on their village on Saturday night, the residents of Marowo have
reportedly been taking refuge to safer areas. However, Dharma said that he had no
information on the number of residents who had fled their homes.
Despite the arrival of additional detectives, gunfire was still to be heard on Monday in
the Poso Pesisir subdistrict of Tiwaa, only a few kilometers away from the
subdistricts where the attacks took place on Saturday.
No one was hurt in the latest shooting incident.
Locals immediately reported the incident to the police.
Meanwhile in Jakarta, a police spokesman said that the bomb, which was found on Jl.
Nias, was composed of low explosives.
The bomb was found in the early morning in a ruined building on Jl. Nias, and was
defused by the police bomb squad, said Brig. Gen. Soenarko, a spokesman for the
National Police.
He added that as of Monday, 600 reinforcements from the police's paramilitary Mobile
Brigade, one Bomb Squad unit (20 officers) and one police intelligence unit (20
officers) had been deployed to Poso.
In addition, a further 700 soldiers have been drafted into the area.
Poso has been the seen of violence since 1999, when sectarian clashes between
Muslims and Christians first broke out in the regency. At least 2,000 people have
been killed in the bloody conflict since then. The communal clashes subsided after
the government-sponsored Malino Accord in 2001, but regular attacks are still
occurring in the regency.
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