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LAKSAMANA.Net, November 30, 2003 07:46 PM

Poso Attacks Leave Four Dead

Laksamana.Net - Intercommunal violence appears to be escalating in Poso, Central Sulawesi, with the latest spate of bombings and attacks leaving four people dead and four more seriously injured.

A father and son were gunned down in an attack on Kilo Trans village in Poso Pesisir on Saturday (29/11/03) at 19.15 local time, National Police deputy chief spokesman Brig.Gen. Soenarko told a press conference on Sunday.

The men were identified as I Ketut Sarmon (46) and I Made Simson (26). The former was the village head and both men were of Balinese descent.

Poso district police chief Abdi Darma told AFP that the local police were searching for the assailants.

The second lethal attack occurred just hours later at Rompi village in Poso Pesisir at 20.30 local time, police spokesman Soenarko said.

Ruslan Parrafik (33) and Rifin Bode (26) were shot dead in the attack, while Limin Layogi (37), Sandra Pongker (34), Yumin Gaji (23) and Yun Endo (46) were seriously injured.

A homemade bomb exploded shortly after the second attack at 21.20 local time in the Central Poso Market near the electronics store owned by Ruslan.

No one was injured in the explosion, reported detikcom.

Homemade bombs also exploded in Poso city on Monday last week (24/11/02) and the following day on Eid al-Fitr, the culmination of celebrations to mark the holy month of Ramadhan.

There were no reported casualties in the bombings and Eid al-Fitr celebrations passed largely without incident across the archipelago.

Last month, a Christian minister and his driver were shot dead by unidentified attackers and their bodies dumped in a nearby river.

The next day, a group of Muslims reportedly beat to death a 23-year-old Christian man during a protest rally against the fatal police shooting of a Muslim man.

Inter-religious violence has claimed the lives of around 1,000 people in and around Poso since violence flared in 1999.

A peace deal brokered by the government in December 2001 brought some respite but the recent spate of attacks is causing serious concern.

Some of those involved in the bloodshed in Poso have been linked to Jemaah Islamiyah, the Southeast Asian fundamentalist Islamic group blamed for last year's Bali bombings and allegedly backed by the al-Qaeda group of Osama bin Laden.

Head of the Poso Conflict Resolution Working Group (Pokja-RKP) Darwis Waru told detikcom on Saturday prior to the attacks that left four people dead that tensions typically heightened towards the end of the year in the area.

"The situation in Poso is tense but back to normal," he said adding that there were no large concentrations of youths or armed persons in Poso.

He said the police and armed forces must work harder to overcome the threats to the public and prove that they can maintain their neutrality in dealing with intercommunal violence.

"The police and armed forces must prove that they are not behind the terror, as people have suspected for some time," he said.

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