The New York Times, October 30, 2005
Masked Men Decapitate 3 Schoolgirls in Indonesia
By REUTERS
JAKARTA, Indonesia, Oct. 29 (Reuters) - Men in black clothes and masks beheaded
three teenage Christian girls on Saturday in eastern Indonesia as they walked to
school near Poso, a Muslim town, officials said.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono condemned the killings, which he described
as "sadist and inhuman crimes," and he called an emergency security meeting with
his vice president, military officials and the police.
A spokesman for the national police, Aryanto Budiharjo, said that as many as six
men in black clothes and masks attacked the students in Bukit Bambu, a village on
the eastern island of Sulawesi.
"The perpetrators wore black attire and veils, and they used machetes to slash," he
told reporters in Jakarta.
The three bodies of the high school students, dressed in brown uniforms, were left at
the site of the attack. Three heads were found at separate locations two hours later by
residents.
Earlier, a police official in Poso gave a different account, saying two men wearing
helmets and riding a motorcycle had attacked the 16-year-old students. He said the
student who had escaped said the attackers wore helmets and carried a two-way
radio.
Poso, which is about 900 miles northeast of the capital, Jakarta, is in an area where
Muslim-Christian clashes killed 2,000 people until a peace deal was agreed in 2001.
Although religious fighting has largely subsided, tension is still high in the region after
bombings in Tentena, a neighboring Christian town, killed 22 people in May.
Security specialists have said local Islamic radicals may have been responsible for
the bombings in Tentena.
Mr. Budiharjo said that about 400 policemen would be sent to reinforce security in
Poso.
In Jakarta, President Yudhoyono also called for calm and pledged to hunt down the
attackers. "I want to tell all my brothers and sisters in Poso that such violence cannot
be tolerated," he said, "and the police with the military will make sure that it will not
happen again."
Copyright © 2005 The New York Times Company.
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