The Jakarta Post, 6/6/2002 5:18:43 PM
Four dead, 17 injured in bus blast in riot-torn Poso
JAKARTA (JP): A bomb that ripped through a crowded bus in eastern Indonesia has
killed four people and injured 17, officials said Thursday.
National Police chief Da'i Bachtiar said the blast on Wednesday near Poso in Central
Sulawesi was an attempt to provoke further clashes between Muslims and Christians
in the area after a December peace deal, AFP reported.
"The bus explosion... was an effort at provocation by those who do not want the
people of this region to live in safety and peace," Da'i said in Mataram capital of West
Nusa Tenggara (NTB).
The explosion was a "criminal act" and investigations were under way, he added,
urging local Christians and Muslims not to give in to the provocation.
Local police Comr. Sukirno was quoted by the news agency as saying that the blast
damaged the entire left side of the bus, ripped off part of the roof and dislodged several
seats.
He said police were trying to trace three passengers who had got off some 15
kilometers (nine miles) before the scene of the explosion.
Yani, a nurse at Poso general hospital, said two people were brought in dead while
two others died in hospital.
She said 17 people were still being treated after theexplosion some 10 kilometers (six
miles) northwest of Poso.
Small bombs went off in three separate locations in Poso last week. No one was hurt
but fires started by the blasts destroyed four electronics stores.
A senior local detective said at the time that outsiders were trying to foment trouble.
He did not identify those believed responsible but said they were not linked to local
Muslims or Christian former combatants.
An estimated 500 to 1,000 people were killed and tens of thousands made homeless
during two years of intermittent Muslim-Christian fighting in the Poso area which broke
out in 2000.
A government-brokered peace deal in December brought a shaky peace to the region.
Another peace pact, also brokered by Jakarta, was reached in February between
Muslims and Christians in the Maluku islands to the east of Sulawesi.
That agreement has also been threatened by bombings and other acts of violence.
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