INQ7.net, 01:39pm (Mla time) 10/01/2006
Mob burns church as tensions rise on Indonesia's Sulawesi
Associated Press
POSO, Indonesia -- A Muslim mob set fire to a partially constructed church Sunday in
apparent retaliation for the detonation of two small bombs, as religious tension on
Indonesia's Sulawesi island continued to escalate, police said.
No one was injured in the bombings late Saturday or the church razing early Sunday
in Poso -- the main battleground between Muslims and Christians from 1998 to 2002.
The conflict left about 1,000 people dead.
Communal tensions have risen since the executions last week of three Christians
convicted of involvement in the four years of fighting.
Shortly after the bombs went off, a group of Muslims set fire to the church in a Muslim
part of town, said police Captain Wayan, who uses one name.
Indonesia is a secular nation with the world's largest number of Muslims, about 190
million. In Sulawesi and several other eastern regions, Christian and Muslim
populations are roughly equal. |
