The Christian Tue, Apr. 03 2007 11:08 AM ET
Indonesia Convicts 12 'Christian' Militants for Muslim Killings
By Ethan Cole, Christian Post Reporter
An Indonesia court has charged 12 Christian believers with last year's mob murder of
two Muslims in Central Sulawesi province .
[PHOTO: Twelve Indonesian Christians, suspected of being involved in the murder of
two Muslims in Poso of Central Sulawesi, listen to the prosecutors during the opening
of their trial (Photo: Reuters)]
The men, who will face a maximum penalty of death, were charged Monday with the
murder of a Muslim fishmonger and his assistant during a Christian protest in
September.
Thousands had demonstrated last fall against what they called the unjust execution of
three Christian farmers convicted of leading a mob that killed hundreds of Muslims in
a boarding school in 2000, reported Reuters.
Indonesia is the world's most populous Muslim country with about 85 percent of its
220 million people saying they are followers of Islam. However, in Central Sulawesi
province there is roughly an equal number of Muslims and Christians.
At least 1,000 people have died due to violence from the late 1998 until a peace
agreement between the two communities took place in late 2001, according to The
Associated Press.
Less than two weeks prior to Monday's conviction, another Jakarta court jailed three
Muslim militants for the 2005 beheading of three Christian schoolgirls in Poso. The
gruesome incident that gained international attention targeted three young girls all
under ages 15-17 as they were walking to school.
The girls' heads were afterwards dropped off in Christian villages with letters reading
"Wanted – 100 more heads. Blood must be pain with blood, lives with lives, heads
with heads," according to AP.
However, one of the girl's mother publicly announced that she forgave her daughter's
killers last December. Haderita Rongkohulu made the statement during a testimony to
the Central Jakarta District Court where the Islamic militants were being held. She
had met with the three suspects a month earlier in the National Police Headquarters
where the Muslim militants offered their apologies and said they were seeking revenge
for the deaths of Muslims that died from religious clashes in the region.
"I accepted their apologies," said Haderita, according to AP. "We have to forgive them
for the sake of humanity," adding that she has no hard feelings toward them.
Also last month one of the largest evangelical theological schools in Indonesia was
partially burned down by a large group of militant Muslims.
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