The Jakarta Post, November 02, 2006
The Poso question
The government is setting up a fact-finding team for Poso to find a solution to the
resurgence of violence in the Central Sulawesi regency. A number of Muslim
organizations will be invited to join, including -- surprisingly -- Laskar Jihad as reported
by Kompas on Tuesday.
Laskar Jihad is known as a hardline organization involved in past violence in the
province, and the invitation must have raised some eyebrows. T! he team is tasked to
tell local militants that killing people in the name of God is not right.
This policy of inclusion, however, should deserve the benefit of the doubt, with Laskar
Jihad working together with Muhammadiyah and Nahdlatul Ulama, the country's two
biggest Muslim organizations known for their moderate religious views.
They will team up with representatives from the Indonesian Ulema Council together
with others from several ministries, the police and the military.
Violence returned to Poso in late September following the executions of three
Christian men found guilty of masterminding some of the sectarian violence that
occurred in 2000. The execution was delayed twice amid protests from supporters,
including some local Poso Muslims, who believe the Poso three, as they were called,
were innocent.
A spate of incidents followed, including the Eklesia Church arson attack, gunfights
between local residents and Police Mobile Brigade officers and the point-blank
shooting of a Christian minister.
The scenic Poso regency that is home to an even split of Muslim and Christians has
largely been peaceful after the 1999-2001 conflict that killed more than 1,000 people,
thanks to the tireless efforts of Vice President Jusuf Kalla, who was then a member of
president Megawati Soekarnoputri's cabinet.
In the absence of Pres! ident Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono who is in China, Kalla
moved again early this week. He had barely finished celebrating the end of the fasting
month in his home town of Makassar before flying into Poso on Saturday.
Kalla held talks with local Muslim and Christian leaders to find a solution and came
up with the fact-finding team.
Under Soeharto governments, a number of conflicts were so persistent they aroused
suspicion they were being staged. The war waged against insurgents in Papua dates
back four decades, the conflict against the Fretilin separatists in East Timor lasted 25
years, the Aceh conflict almost three decades.
During the East Timo! r conflict, security authorities were fond of saying the number of
the Fretilin fighters had been reduced to a few hundred, but the war continued. The
same thing occurred during the fighting against the Aceh and Papua rebels.
These wars have defied logic as the government's troops always outnumbered those
of the insurgents. They were also better trained and better equipped than the rebels.
Yet the wars were never won. It was as if there was someone pulling the strings from
behind, a kind of dalang or puppeteer in a wayang show.
Someone who made sure the country was in a state of perpetual war.
It is because of this l! egacy that suspicions about the reasons for conflicts are
common today. It means the current government is finding it harder to solve
longstanding violence because it has to go a long way to prove to people that the
fighting is not centrally directed or sanctioned.
Unfortunately, the Poso conflict that erupted in 1999, a year after Soeharto fell from
power, now looks increasingly similar to these past battles.
Some reports suggest "invisible hands" from outside Poso are at work stirring up
trouble. It is certainly true that since the worst bloodletting four years ago, local
Christians and Muslims now loathe any kind of conflict.
Poso'! s situation is not dissimilar to the Christian-Muslim conflict in Ambon, another
troubled regency in the eastern archipelago of the country. Like in Poso, the security
authorities were occasionally involved in this violence and like in Poso they were also
accused of bias.
National Police chief Gen. Sutanto's remarks this week, that it is proving "difficult" to
capture suspected Poso terrorists -- a police spokesman has said 29 people are still
on the loose -- does not quiet these suspicions. But Sutanto is not mincing his words
since Noordin Moh. Top, a Malaysian national and the country's most-wanted
terrorist, has defied the police for years.
No war against terror could be waged without intelligence officers. The government
acknowledged in Dece! mber 2001 that foreign and local militants had a base camp in
a remote Poso village, before strangely retracting this statement a day later.
Any conflict is also prone to exploitation, especially in a country with a weak
judiciary. Interest groups with power are keen to exploit it for their own ends. They can
also be used to divert attention away from corruption or land disputes.
In Poso, the government has its job cut out engaging the participants and untangling
this complex web of conflict.
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