BBC, Tuesday, 20 December 2005
Fears after Indonesia beheadings
By Rachel Harvey, BBC Newsnight
On the edge of a hillside overlooking a lush green valley lies the grave of two teenage
school girls. The double grave is covered in wreaths, including one from the
Indonesian president.
On the day we visited it was also surrounded by mourners; family and friends
gathered to mark forty days since the girls' death.
The distraught mother of fifteen-year-old Afita talked to a photograph of her daughter
which had been placed by the headstone. "Be at peace," she said "may God forgive
your sins." There was nothing peaceful about the way Alfita and her friend died. They
were ambushed on their way to school and murdered. Their bodies were mutilated.
Two severed heads were later found near a police post and a third was left on the
porch of a house in Christian community on the outskirts of town. The attackers
seemed to be sending a chilling message.
Bitter fighting
Poso is no stranger to violence. The area was the scene of bitter fighting between
Christians and Muslims five years ago. More than a thousand people were killed
before a peace agreement was brokered in December 2001. The ruins of burned out
buildings - churches, mosques and houses - bear silent testimony to the ferocity of
the battles fought here. One of the worst single incidents took place at Walisongo
Islamic boarding school, nine kilometres out of town. A Christian group attacked
without warning. At least a hundred Muslims were killed. The school has long since
been abandoned. Tangled vines and bushes have grown up through the wreckage.
Cows graze lazily on the grass which covers the rubble. The murder of innocent
schoolgirls has added new layers of grief, fear and anger to the old. Ilham, a young
assistant teacher at the time of the attack, showed me around the grounds. He took
me to a hole at the back of the school where he said eight badly burned bodies had
been found. Ilham fled to the jungle but was later captured. He managed, eventually,
to escape, but not before he'd been tortured. His back and arms are covered in thick
dark scars.
Mujahedin fighters
The experience changed him forever. He became involved with a group of mujahedin
fighters. The conflict in Poso attracted militant groups from other parts of Indonesia
who came to train local recruits for what they believed was a jihad, a holy war. "It was
difficult to get to know them," Ilham told me;" They didn't give their real names. They
were very secretive. At that time, during the conflict, we welcomed anyone who came
to help us." So should the beheadings of the schoolgirls be viewed as part of a
continuing cycle rather than an isolated act of brutality? Despite the peace deal,
sporadic violence has continued. The police have said they think an organised group
is to blame for the latest killings, but they've given few details.
Because the most recent attacks appear to be targeting Christians, some local
Muslims have found themselves under intense scrutiny. Adnan Arsal, was a signatory
to the 2001 peace agreement, but he is known to have links to radical groups. The
police recently raided the school which he runs. Mr Arsal says he and his colleagues
were being unfairly victimised. "I think there's some sort of agenda to discredit us and
to discredit Islam in general," he said, "so the blame will fall on Muslims and we'll be
labelled terrorists. But look at our school. Do you really think that anyone here could
carry out such a killing? Clearly outsiders did this."
Tensions exploited
Outsiders have certainly seen potential in Poso before. Sidney Jones, of the
International Crisis Group, said there are clear links between those who fought to
defend Muslims during the height of the conflict in Sulawesi and those who have
targeted westerners in Bali and Jakarta. "From the very beginning the reason
Indonesians joined terrorist movements was because of local issues, not Iraq or
Afghanistan or Palestine." So, she says; "the best way to prevent further terrorist
activity in Indonesia is to make sure that communal tensions between Christians and
Muslims are well handled." But the murder of innocent schoolgirls has added new
layers of grief, fear and anger to the old. Poso's fault lines have been exploited before.
It is in the interests not just of Indonesia, but also of the wider world to make sure it
doesn't happen again.
© BBC MMIV
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