LAKSAMANA.Net, October 25, 2004 05:57 PM
Bomb Cache Found in Poso Graveyard
Laksamana.Net - Villagers in the religiously scarred city of Poso, Central Sulawesi
province, have found 123 small homemade bombs buried in a Muslim cemetery,
reports said Monday (25/10/04).
The explosives were unearthed at about 1pm Sunday by locals who were cleaning the
graveyard in Moegko Lama district, Poso Police chief Abdi Dharma was quoted as
saying by detikcom online news portal.
It was not immediately clear when the explosive devices, contained in two large
sacks, were buried.
Other caches of munitions found around Poso have been identified by police as
leftovers from fierce communal clashes between Muslims and Christians that left
about 2,000 people dead in Central Sulawesi over 2000-2002.
Dharma said the latest cache consisted of 115 apparently empty bomb casings and
eight active bombs, the latter containing shrapnel such as nails and sharpened metal.
"These bombs were not remnants of the disturbances. Apparently they were just false
bombs, possibly prepared for future bombing actions,” he said.
He said the material evidence has been taken to Poso Police station, adding that
officers were sealing off the location of the discovery and investigating the bombs.
Poso Police deputy police chief Rudy Tranggono said 15 of the bombs were active,
while the rest only needed fuses to be used. "All of them were low explosives. They
looked new but there are two alternatives, they were remains from the past or part of a
fresh plan. The sacks looked new too, though," he was quoted as saying by Reuters.
Tranggono said residents preparing to enlarge the graveyard had found the bombs
when they were about to bulldoze shrubs.
Police have declined to speculate on who might have been stockpiling the cache.
The Poso violence was a side-effect of sectarian violence in the neighboring Maluku
islands, where about 8,000 people were killed over 1999-2002. Much of the violence
was blamed on Java-based militant Islamic group Laskar Jihad and feuding factions of
the Indonesian Defense Forces.
The government in December 2001 sponsored a peace deal, called the Malino
Accord, that largely put an end to the Central Sulawesi carnage, but intermittent
killings and bombings have continued, mostly targeting Christians. In October 2003,
masked gunmen killed 13 Christian villagers in Morowali and Poso districts. Since
then there has been intermittent religious violence, including the gunning down of a
Christian preacher during a church service in July.
Ambon Bank Gets Bomb Threat
The Express Modern Bank in Ambon, Maluku province, on Monday received a bomb
threat from an anonymous female caller, state news agency Antara reported.
A bank clerk, Yanti, said a woman called at 11.30am, saying a bomb had been
placed somewhere in the bank.
"Soon after receiving the bomb threat, I passed on the information to my superior, who
then contacted the police to send in a bomb disposal team," she said.
Police combed the bank but found no bomb.
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