Syracuse Online, 9/29/2006, 2:23 p.m. ET
Group attacks Indonesia police station
The Associated Press
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Christians angered by last week's executions of three
Roman Catholic militants set fire to a police station Friday and hurled rocks at a
helicopter carrying a police chief, the state news agency Antara reported.
No injuries were reported in the violence that erupted in the village of Taripa on the
province island of Sulawesi. Authorities were not immediately available to comment.
The report said more than 100 youths hurled rocks at the helicopter as it took off
following a visit by the police chief. The helicopter was apparently undamaged. The
mob then torched three cars and a local police post.
Antara reported that the crowd was angry about the Sept. 22 executions of three
Christians on Sulawesi.
Fabianus Tibo, 60, Marinus Riwu, 48, and Dominggus da Silva, 42, were convicted of
leading a Christian militia that carried out a series of attacks in 2000 on Sulawesi,
including a machete and gun assault on an Islamic school where dozens of men were
seeking shelter. At least 70 people were killed in the attack.
More than 1,000 people of both faiths died in four years of sectarian fighting on
Sulawesi that ended in 2002.
Human rights groups have questioned the fairness of the trial in the world's most
populous Muslim nation, as well as whether the three were leaders of the fighting.
Some analysts have suggested that Indonesia bowed to pressure from hard-line
Muslims in handing down the sentences.
Few people — either Muslims or Christians! — were punished for their part in the
unrest and none received more than 15 years in prison.
The executions sparked rioting last week on the Christian-majority island of Flores,
the birthplace of the three men, but Sulawesi itself did not see any violence amid a
police crackdown.
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