AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, Sunday December 9, 2001 11:44 AM
Christians flee Muslim militants in Sulawesi unrest
Christian refugees trekked for two days through mountain forest to escape advancing
Muslim warriors armed with bombs and rifles, a Christian leader in a riot-torn district in
Indonesia's Central Sulawesi said.
Speaking in Alitupu, a village in the Central Sulawesi district of Poso, where he and
his fellow villagers had fled attacks by "Jihad" (holy war) warriors in a three-day
offensive last month, the Christian leader spoke of being overpowered.
Muslims and Christians have been fighting in the Poso area since May last year, but
after a period of relative calm the conflict has escalated in recent weeks.
Conflict has been stoked by the arrival of the Muslim militia, the Java-based Laskar
Jihad (Jihad Force), whose leader claims to have fought against the former Soviet
Union in Afghanistan and whose men have battled Christians in the Maluku islands.
The Poso attacks began on November 27 and forced thousands of Christians to flee
as the heavily armed militiamen seized a series of villages, refugees and aid workers
say.
"If we had been one day later, we would have all been dead," the Christian
commander said.
The commander, who did not want to be named, said his defenders were armed only
with machetes that were no match for the bombs and firearms of the black-clad
attackers who struck with shouts of "God is great."
"They came to the corner of the village and threw a bomb. We don't know if it was real
or home made," said the commander, a soft-spoken 39-year-old.
"Our houses and churches were destroyed."
He said eight Indonesian soldiers were on duty in the village. The soldiers shot back
at the attackers but quickly ran out of ammunition and retreated, he said.
More than 100 Christians fled only with their clothes and what little food they could
bring with them.
They said they walked day and night until they neared the safety of a village on the
edge of Lore Lindu National Park.
"There is still one family we don't have news of. Dead or alive, we don't know," said
the commander.
He and the people of his village have joined about 8,000 other refugees who are now
sleeping on wooden floors and cooking on portable stoves in in villages near the Napu
Valley.
While some children at the camps played with toy guns made of bamboo, their
parents jokingly asked a group of foreign journalist for real weapons.
"Then I'll shoot some jihad," said one man who gave his name as Anton.
Alfianus Sengkey, 22, said he ran to the hills as the Muslim forces advanced on his
village but his father remained at the family home, armed only with a knife.
"Two days later they found his body," Sengkey said.
Copyright © 2001 AFP. All rights reserved.
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