News Interactive [Australia], April 12, 2004
Police no wiser on ninja gunmen
From Rob Taylor in Jakarta
INDONESIAN police today admitted they had few clues about the identity of three
masked "ninja" gunmen who sprayed automatic gunfire into a crowd of Easter
worshippers in central Sulawesi, sparking fears of renewed religious bloodshed.
Hundreds of police Mobile Brigade reinforcements were flown into the town of Poso
this afternoon to prevent further clashes between Christians and Muslims after seven
people were wounded in the Saturday night shooting attack.
The three gunmen, mounted on a single motorbike and wearing black clothes and
masks, opened fire with M-16 assault rifles on the Tabernacle church in Kilo village,
near Poso, and then fled before local police could arrive.
The churchgoers, who had been singing an Easter hymn, dived under pews to escape
the hail of bullets.
Police blamed the attacks on "armed troublemakers" who they said were probably
attempting to stir up fresh religious tensions in the divided township, where Islamic
terror network Jemaah Islamiah is said to be regrouping and training fresh recruits.
"We cannot tell who it was yet. It is still under investigation," local police chief Abdi
Dharma said.
"All we know is that this was an armed terror group."
Fighting in the Poso area first flared in 1999 after a religious war erupted in the nearby
Maluku islands, and only subsided in 2001 after more than 2000 deaths and a
government-brokered peace deal.
But sporadic fighting has continued and last October gunmen killed 10 people in
attacks on mainly Christian villages.
Last month, gunmen shot dead a local clergyman, Reverend Freddy Wuisan, in
Tomura village and a female university lecturer was wounded in another shooting in
March.
Police arrested five men after those attacks, including one said to be of Arab descent.
Dharma said the situation was under control and Christian residents had been urged
not to retaliate.
A recent International Crisis Group report on Poso warned JI and other extremist
groups, including one new militant outfit named Mujahidin Kompak, may be recruiting
in the region and aiming to provoke fresh fighting.
Meanwhile, some candidates in Indonesia's recent national elections warned fresh
fighting could also occur in the Maluku capital of Ambon after voting split between the
main Christian party and the conservative Muslim PKS, instead of large secular
parties.
M Junis, the Ambon leader of Indonesia's largest Muslim organisation, the 30 million
strong Nahdlatul Ulama, said both parties would have to work together to prevent
religious fanaticism.
AAP
Copyright 2004 News Limited. All times AEST (GMT+10).
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