The New York Times, May 28, 2005
Blasts in Christian Town in Indonesian Kill at Least 19
By REUTERS
Filed at 5:09 a.m. ET
TENTENA, Indonesia (Reuters) - Two bombs ripped through a busy market in a
Christian town in eastern Indonesia on Saturday, killing up to 21 people in an attack
likely to raise fears sectarian bloodshed could again break out in the region.
The explosions left a trail of blood and destruction in the lakeside town of Tentena, on
the eastern island of Sulawesi, part of an area where three years of Muslim-Christian
clashes killed 2,000 people until a peace deal was agreed in late 2001.
Periodic unrest has flared since, but Saturday morning's attack was among the worst.
Tensions rose after the bombings, with hundreds of residents converging on the local
hospital and destroyed outdoor market, demanding police find the killers.
The official Antara news agency, quoting local government officials, said the death toll
was 21. Police earlier told Reuters it was 19.
A local hospital official said 32 people were wounded, many seriously. One toddler
was among the dead, officials said.
Crowds of people banged their hands on the local police chief's car when he arrived on
the scene soon after the attacks, but there was no violence.
``The situation is getting tense,'' Andi Asikin, the mayor of Poso town not far from
Tentena, told El Shinta radio station.
``People are upset because their families are victims. Crowds of people who are
relatives of the victims are condemning the act. They are demanding officials hunt the
perpetrators.''
Police on the scene said the bombs comprised high explosives, adding that the
blasts could be heard 12 km (7 miles) away. The second explosion came 15 minutes
after the first, and was the bigger of the two, residents said.
The roofs of shops near the market were torn off and food and goods scattered over a
wide area in Tentena, 1,500 km (900 miles) northeast of Jakarta. Windows in a police
station were blown out.
Much of the past Sulawesi violence focused on nearby Poso in a conflict that drew
Muslim militants from groups such as the al Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiah, a
Southeast Asian network blamed for numerous bomb attacks across Indonesia.
Some 85 percent of Indonesia's 220 million people are Muslim. But in some eastern
parts, Christian and Muslim populations are about equal in size.
Picturesque Tentena, famed for its churches and surrounded by clove-covered hills,
lies 40 km (25 miles) to the south of Poso. Police were checking vehicles leaving
Tentena, while security had been tightened. Most shops had closed.
``I was standing in front of a store when suddenly there was an explosion. I lost
consciousness,'' said one victim, Jonathan, from his hospital bed after being wounded
by shrapnel.
TERRORISM WARNINGS
Religious figures called the bombings an act of terrorism.
``The people behind this do not want Poso to be safe,'' said priest Renaldi Damanik.
Police said one suspicious package was found nearby after the explosions, but added
it was not a bomb.
The two explosions follow heightened warnings from Western governments about
terrorist attacks in the world's most populous Muslim nation, although few foreigners
venture to the Poso region because of its history of bloodshed.
On Thursday, the United States closed all its four diplomatic missions in Indonesia
because of a security threat.
Attacks against Western targets and blamed on Jemaah Islamiah include blasts at
Bali nightclubs in October 2002 that killed 202 people, mostly foreigners, and one last
September outside the Australian embassy in Jakarta that killed 10.
The Tentena bombings follow an attack by gunmen on a police post in the Moluccas
islands further to the east that killed five police this month.
The Moluccas islands, 2,300 km (1,440 miles) east of Jakarta, were also the scene of
vicious communal fighting between Muslims and Christians from 1999 to 2002 that left
more than 5,000 dead. A peace agreement was reached there in early 2002.
Copyright 2005 Reuters Ltd.
Copyright © 2005 The New York Times Company.
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