The Jakarta Post, November 18, 2004
Police believe same group undermining peace in Poso
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Police believe the perpetrators of last Saturday's bombing in the Central Sulawesi
town of Poso came from the same group that slayed a prosecutor and killed a
Protestant minister in the provincial capital of Palu a few months earlier.
"We cannot reveal their identities yet as the investigation is still underway. There is
also a possibility that the perpetrators came from the warring parties involved in the
previous conflict in Poso," National Police chief Da'i Bachtiar said after a meeting with
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.
Da'i, Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs Widodo A.S.,
Minister of Home Affairs M. Ma'ruf and Indonesian Military (TNI) commander Gen.
Endriartono Sutarto visited Poso on Tuesday to observe the latest developments in
the troubled town at first hand.
Sectarian disturbances affected the town between 1999 and 2001, and were virtual
carbon copies of the disturbances in Maluku, which started earlier. Peace deals
signed between the warring parties in the South Sulawesi town of Malino in December
2001 and February 2002 marked an end to the conflict.
Despite the peace agreements, Poso has continued to be plagued by sporadic
violence. The blast which killed six people and injured dozens of others on the eve of
Idul Fitri on Saturday was the latest act in a string of violence that has disrupted the
peace in the town.
Weeks before the bombing, people in Poso were shocked by the beheading of a man
and the shooting dead of a public transportation driver.
Da'i said the suspected bombers would be charged under the Antiterrorism Law,
which provides for a maximum sentence of death.
Widodo said the series of violent incidents in Poso had disrupted order in the area and
were designed to terrorize the people.
"We do not think these are separate cases. Instead, we see that there is a possibility
of systematic efforts to undermine peace and order in Poso," Widodo said.
Following last week's bombing, police sent 100 reinforcement personnel to Poso to
back up the some 2,000 police and military personnel sent in three months ago.
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