The Jakarta Post, January 03, 2006
Fact-finding team 'needed to unravel Palu violence
Tiarma Siboro and Ruslan Sangadji, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta/Palu
Local leaders, human rights groups and Regional Representative Council (DPD)
members joined forces on Monday in demanding an immediate withdrawal of non-local
military and police personnel from Central Sulawesi.
They instead urged President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to send an independent
fact-finding team to conduct a comprehensive investigation into the continuing violence
in the provincial towns of Palu and Poso.
"Perhaps security authorities will feel they are being slapped in the face if the
President approves the establishment of an independent team. Indeed, the security
authorities must be subject to the team's scrutiny because of their failure to stop the
violence," said DPD member Muspani, who chairs a team of his colleagues, who are
looking into the rampant violence in the province.
There were approximately 4,000 reinforcement police and military personnel sent to
restore order in the province throughout 2005, which saw repeated acts of violence
that could well rekindle sectarian clashes in the province, which reached a peak in
2001, with over 1,000 people killed. The most notable attacks in 2005 were the
bombing at a traditional market in Tentena district in May, which killed 22 people and
the beheading of three schoolgirls in October.
A Palu market was rocked by a bomb blast on New Year's Eve, leaving seven people
dead.
Muspani said the independent team should find out the source of the widespread
circulation of firearms and explosives in the towns, even though they were unofficially
declared areas of security a operation in 2000.
Poso became a killing field when at least 1,000 people were killed in a conflict pitting
Muslims and Christians between 2000 and 2001.
A government-facilitated peace deal in December 2001 managed to curb tension in
the area, but sporadic attacks have continued to taint the peace agreement. Shooting
incidents targeting churches, such as Effatha Church and Gereja Anugerah Church
took place in 2004, followed by a bomb attack on the Immanuel Church, and a
number of shooting incidents and the gruesome beheadings of three Christian
teenagers in 2005.
"Therefore, we ask the fact-finding team to focus on the crackdown on the network, or
the groups which are believed to have provoked violence in the territory since 1998,"
Mahfud Masuara from the Poso Center said.
Saiyid Saggaf Aljufri, a charismatic Muslim leader who heads the largest Muslim
organization in eastern Indonesia, Al Khairaat, agreed, saying the failure of security
authorities to tackle the cases had created distrust among local people as to whether
they were willing to put the violence to an end.
Edmond Leonard, an activist from the Sulawesi-based National Commission for
Missing Persons and Victims of the Violence (Kontras), questioned why the bomb
attack in Palu occurred while the police had heightened security measures ahead of
the Christmas and New Year's Eve holidays.
"This fact makes us think that security officers may be part of the problem here,"
Edmond said.
Intelligence authorities claimed they had found a training camp for terrorists in Central
Sulawesi, but no measures have been taken against those allegedly involved in
terrorism activities there.
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