The Jakarta Post, 7/18/2004 2:43:35 PM
Small bomb explodes in restive Poso
JAKARTA (AFP): A home-made bomb blew up outside a packed sports hall in the
restive Central Sulawesi town of Poso but caused no casualties or damage, police
said Sunday.
"It was definitively a home-made bomb that was put in an open sewer outside of the
sport hall," said the Poso district Police Chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Abdi Darma.
The blast struck around 9:00 pm (1400 GMT) Saturday as the sport hall was packed
with hundreds of people attending a music and dance festival there.
Darma told AFP by telephone from Poso that the low intensity bomb only caused
cracks in the concrete lining of the gutter as well as panic among the hundreds of
people inside the hall.
Many of the people rushed to get out of the building but there was no stampede and
no one injured, he said.
He said that police were investigating the blast but that no one had been so far
questioned.
In another part of Poso, the wife of an Indonesian soldier was stabbed to death near a
local military barrack at about the same time, Darma added. Darma said that police
were investigating the case.
More than 1,000 people were killed in clashes between Muslims and Christians in
Poso in 2000-2001.
The government brokered a peace deal in December 2001 but sporadic violence has
continued. (*)
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