EARTHtimes.org, Wed, 04 Apr 2007 08:27:01GMT
Five Indonesian Christians on trial over killing of Muslims
Author: DPA Category : Asia (World)
Jakarta - Indonesian prosecutors charged five Christians on Wednesday with
involvement in the tit-for-tat murder of two Muslims by a mob angry at the execution of
Christian militants in Central Sulawesi province last year. Prosecutors charged the five
with violations of anti-terrorism laws, which carry a maximum penalty of death.
Chief prosecutor Totok Bambang told the South Jakarta District Court that the five
defendants were involved in the killing of two Muslims i! n the religiously divided region
of Poso, Central Sulawesi, in September 2006, reported the state-run Antara news
agency.
The murder of two Muslims was aimed at taking revenge for last September's
execution of three Christian militants convicted of leading a mob that massacred
hundreds of Muslims in a boarding school in 2003.
The five, together with other defendants, were setting up roadblocks and stopping cars
that passed their village in the Poso region of the province in search of Muslims, the
prosecutors said.
The Christians dragged two Muslim fish traders from a truck in Poso before murdering
them, the prosecutors said.
On Monday, 12 other Christians were also brought on trial, accused of similar
charges.
The trial of the Christians came less than two weeks after another Jakarta court
convicted three Muslim militants to between 14-to-20 years in prison for the
beheadings of three Christian schoolgirls in Poso in 2005.
The Poso regency, a large but sparsely populated area in the middle of Sulawesi
island, about 1,800 kilometres northeast of Jakarta, has been racked with
Muslim-Christian tension since 1999.
More than 2,000 people were killed in the peak of the violence from late 1998 until a
peace accord between Muslim and Christian communities took effect in late 2001.
In late 2001, rival party leaders signed a government-sponsored peace accord, but
sporadic violence frequently occurs.
© 2007 earthtimes.org. All Rights Reserved.
|
