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Indonesian Christians Suffer Torture, Death in Brutal Jihad
By Gary Lane
April 06, 2001
CBN.com - WARNING: MATERIAL IN THIS ARTICLE IS UNSUITABLE FOR CHILDREN.
CBN News has previously covered some of the atrocities in Indonesia, but this is our first inside look with exclusive video shown on the 700 Club and testimonies from some of the victims.
AMBON, INDONESIA For more than two years, radical Muslims calling themselves Laskar Jihad warriors, have waged war against Indonesian Christians. Some of the worst violence occurred just this past winter in the Maluku Islands.
Centuries ago, Dutch explorers found the allure of Indonesias Maluku Islands irresistible. Aqua-colored crystalline waters and white sandy beaches with palm trees blowing in warm tropical breezes beckon visitors to one of the most beautiful places in the world. But today a massive wave of violence and persecution has transformed this once peaceful paradise into Hell on Earth.
Homes and churches have been burned, Christians have been forcibly converted to Islam and men, women, children and even the elderly have been forcibly circumcised. Others have been sliced to shreds and beheaded by crazed Muslim mobs.
Stefanus Wenno and his wife Mila, a 43-year-old nurse, were attacked by a Muslim mob as they journeyed to church last January 21st. One irate Muslim brandishing a machete tore into the flesh of Milas right arm.
Her bone was broken and the blow nearly sliced her arm in two. Only six centimeters of dangling skin kept Milas arm attached slightly above her elbow. She no longer has any feeling in her hand and forearm because one of her nerves was severed.
I felt terrible and sad when this incident happened to me, but I know that God will bless me and my family the same as he has blessed Job and his family, Mila said. I feel happy. I do not feel sad about this incident which happened to me, and I also forgive all the peoples who have done this to me.
Mila, Stefanus, and other Christian families were left homeless that fateful winter day after radical Muslims burned their village on the north end of Seram Island. Nearly 4,000 villagers are now living as refugees in the jungle.
At least a quarter of a million people have been internally displaced since religious violence erupted more than two years ago. An estimated 8,000 Malukuns have been killed.
A large group of school kids on the island of Haruku have lost a parent because of the recent wave of persecution against Christians some have lost both parents.
Fourteen-year-old Maria Nenkeulah says tragedy struck her family when her mother and father left her to baby-sit her younger siblings one night in January 2000.
I waited for them until ten oclock and wondered why they hadnt come back, Maria said.
Marias parents didnt return because they had been hacked to death by a radical Muslim mob. Their bodies were found buried beneath some banana leaves at the bottom of the village water well.
Unlike Mila Wenno, Maria finds it difficult to forgive. She remains bitter against those responsible for leaving her parentless.
I still dont know whether I can forgive them or not because they have killed my parents. I still doubt about it, Maria said.
Marias six younger brothers and sisters are now split up and living with various relatives. Maria asks Americans to pray for her. Pray that God will give me the ability to eventually care for my brothers and sisters," she said.
Tragedy short of death has claimed thousands of other Malukan victims. One of the worst incidents occurred on the small island of Kasiui at the start of Ramadan late last November.
Armed Jihad warriors forced as many as 600 Christians to undergo an Islamic conversion ceremony.
One 14-year-old girl says she cried when the Muslims poured water over her head to cleanse her before she entered the mosque. She says she wept because it symbolized the giving up of her Christian faith.
Several days after the forced conversions, Muslims went from house to house and forcibly circumcised as many as ten people at a time all with the same razor blade. Victims were told they had to undergo circumcision if they were to be considered real Muslims.
Thomas Rusin, 30, says he was told that he must, follow the Muslim way or be killed. He says he did not fight his armed attackers. I felt scared because I hadnt faced this problem before, he said.
Rusin says none of the victims were given anti-septic, painkillers or bandages only a small piece of cotton was placed on their wounds. He says he was sore, sick and bedridden after his forced circumcision.
I could not get up from the bed or walk for two days, he said.
More women than men were circumcised, and even a six-year-old little girl named Emiliana was restrained while her genitals were forcibly butchered. She was too young and embarrassed to fully understand or talk about her experience.
Thomas Rusins wife, Ester talked openly about her forced circumcision. She says two Muslim women held her hands down and then ripped into her genitalia with a razor blade.
Nevertheless, she says her hateful attitude against her attackers changed after she turned to prayer.
I feel better and I forgive them for all that theyve done to me, Ester said.
But Esters husband and other victims are less willing to forgive the radical Muslims. Some Christians have even taken up arms in retaliation.
The wave of death and destruction has spread beyond the Malukus. Even Christians on the main island of Java have been hit.
Emergency Medical workers arriving on the scene at the Doulos Bible School in Jakarta December 15, 1999 were preparing to take the body of 20-year-old Dominggus Kenjam to the Muslim morgue.
They found him lying in a pool of blood, motionless on the ground, his head nearly severed from his body. Dominggus prayed that God would give him the strength to speak. Suddenly, as if out of nowhere, he whispered four words. I am a Christian.
Miraculously, Dominggus survived the assault on the school that night. Two other students were also seriously injured and another was killed.
Dominggus says the incident has helped him grow closer to God. He says he prays for his Muslim attackers and he forgives them, unconditionally, as commanded by Jesus.
I forgive them by praying, Dominggus said. And if I meet them one day, I will tell them about Jesus and Jesus said that we must forgive our enemies.
Gary Lane is News Services Director for the Voice of the Martyrs, a Christian ministry dedicated to exposing persecution of Christians around the world and bringing relief to the suffering.
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