The Christian Science Monitor, January 11, 2006
A religious conflict tamed
A bombing Monday near a church is the latest in a string of attacks in Sulawesi.
By Eric Unmacht | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor
PALU, INDONESIA - Despite a flurry of warnings about possible violence over the
holidays, residents in this capital of Central Sulawesi Province, thought the bomb
blast that ripped through a nearby pork-selling market on New Year's Eve was an
earthquake.
They were convinced, like so many others in the region, that the communal tensions
that erupted into deadly clashes between Muslims and Christians five years ago were
a thing of the past. Even after finding out it was a bomb, they condemned it as simply
the work of a small group of "terrorists."
"Christian and Muslim people used to be very easily provoked," says a local Christian,
Leo Parengkuan, as he sits drinking coffee on his porch with a Muslim friend. "Now
they're not, because the people know that the violence is not because of religion, but
because of politics, economics, and other things."
This refusal to be provoked by a recent string of sensational attacks - including the
beheading of three girls walking to a Christian school in October and an ineffectual
bomb blast near a church Monday - marks strong popular support for a 2001 peace
accord designed to end several years of large-scale Christian-Muslim clashes.
A deeper understanding of the unrest has sprung out of a general conflict fatigue, with
more people seeing past the seeming religious nature of the ongoing attacks.
Observers credit the careful work by community and religious leaders,
nongovernmental organizations, and even the once-fiery local media with promoting
that understanding.
Top religious leaders from both sides held public meetings to talk about the need to
end the conflict, and quickly and jointly condemned further violence. NGO workers
went to villages teaching people to look more critically at the conflict, and trained local
youth "peace agents" to do the same. Comic books were developed for children in
nearby Poso with stories involving Muslim and Christian characters resolving problems
through tolerance.
"Muslims and Christians would really open their minds when they saw this," says
Iskandar Lamuka, director of the Institute for Empowering Civil Society (LPMS) in
Poso.
Tasrief Siara, a journalist for independent Nebula radio in Palu, worked with other
reporters and photographers to cover these peace-building efforts and promoted
"peace journalism" in the area after seeing the way the local coverage of the conflict
stoked tensions.
"We began reporting not only on how many victims there were, how bad the mutilation
was, ... but the impact of the violence on the people," Siara says, "how many children
were losing their fathers and mothers, and how many widows were losing their
husbands - the mental impact, not just the physical."
The impact of such efforts is being felt even in the district of Poso - the heart of the
conflict in Sulawesi that left more than 1,000 dead - where burned and destroyed
houses and religious buildings are easier to find than sectarian anger.
"I was very sad to see my house burned down and was angry at the time, but now -
no," says Hauglim Peuggele, a Poso resident who stood in front of a burned down
church. "I've come back to this place to buy a house and reconcile with Muslim
people in Poso."
But while the combined efforts seem to have born fruit in stemming a communal
backlash along religious lines, continuing incidents of "mysterious" attacks show the
difficulty of stamping out such violence completely.
Most of the attacks since the accord have appeared to target Christians, and security
forces and terror experts have pointed to outside Islamic militant groups that came to
the island during the height of the conflict.
The International Crisis Group has warned that outside jihadist groups continue to
exploit the conflict in Poso and stressed the need to reintegrate "leftover mujahideen."
"When outsiders look to enter a place like Poso, it's leftover mujahideen who provide
them with a way into the area and local contacts to recruit new people," says David
McRae, an ICG analyst.
For many of these ex-combatants, fighting in the name of Islam remains one of the
most meaningful experiences of their lives, and may prompt them to continue even
without a formal organization.
"It's difficult to forget the time I was a combatant," says Abang Syamsuri, a former
mujahideen who fought during both the conflicts in Sulawesi and Maluku. "I stopped
fighting in 2001, but had a discussion with myself until 2005. I would think, 'Should I
be a combatant or live a normal life in Poso?' "
Rights groups have long accused security forces of involvement in continuing conflicts
for economic or political reasons. The failure to bring to justice those behind the
violence in Poso has only fueled local suspicions of involvement by officials, military,
or local businessmen.
The government responded last week to mounting calls for an independent fact-finding
team by pledging to send over 1,000 more police officers to Central Sulawesi to work
with over 5,000 security personnel already in the area.
"In Poso, the government doesn't need to send more troops, police, or intelligence,"
says Rev. Rinaldy Damanik, chairman of the Synod of Churches of Central Sulawesi.
"They need to give more space to the people to make independent fact collection."
NGO workers say the lack of answers behind the recent and past attacks has
prevented resolving land disputes that would allow displaced people to return home
and heal.
"We lived next to the Christian people for so long and we were all friends, so I really
believed that they would not attack," says Siara, a Muslim woman who fled her village
in rural Poso and has never returned. "I'm not angry at all Christians, but I am still
angry at the people who burned my house and killed my husband. I don't know why
they did it."
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