ASSOCIATED PRESS, Friday June 7, 2002 4:08 AM ET
Indonesia Seeks Bus Bombing Suspects
By MICHAEL CASEY, Associated Press Writer
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) - Security forces searched Friday for the perpetrators of a
bus bombing that killed four people and injured 17 in an Indonesian region with a
history of violence between Muslims and Christians.
Witnesses and officials said Friday that most of the bombing victims in the province of
Central Sulawesi were Christians. A pastor and his 17-year-old daughter were among
those killed.
A Christian leader urged officials to rid the province of Islamic paramilitary troops who
have been blamed for violence.
The attack raised doubts about a peace plan signed in December that sought to end
two years of fighting between Christians and Muslims.
"We felt safe here ... but after this incident we feel very uncomfortable," said the Rev.
Ika Kulas of the Central Sulawesi Christian Church in Tentena, where the bus was
headed. "We are worried that something like this will happen again."
The Indonesian National Police sent a forensic team to Central Sulawesi on Friday to
investigate the explosion. Provincial police said they questioned three passengers
who had gotten off the bus before the blast, as well as five other passengers and the
driver.
The blast occurred just outside Poso, a district capital and the site of much of the
religious violence.
The two-year war in the region was fueled in part by the arrival in May 2000 of
members of a Muslim militant group, Laskar Jihad, from elsewhere in the sprawling
nation.
Ika and other Christian leaders called on authorities to remove the remaining Laskar
Jihad fighters from the province 1,000 miles northeast of Jakarta.
"We have demanded that those outsiders who called themselves 'jihad' should leave
Sulawesi," Ika said. "We have good relations with our local Muslim neighbors. They
also are tired of this conflict and want an end to this kind of violence."
Muhamad Sultan, a Laskar Jihad official, denied any role in the bombing. He insisted
there were no armed Laskar troops in the province, only members doing social work
such as running clinics and an orphanage.
Copyright © 2002 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
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