The Jakarta Post, August 11, 2002
Muslim group not behind killing of tourist: Jusuf Kalla
JAKARTA (JP): Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare Jusuf Kalla said on
Saturday he doubted Muslim militants blamed for sporadic violence in the Central
Sulawesi town of Poso were behind an attack that left an Italian tourist dead, because
"it is not their style".
Kalla was referring to the militant Muslim Jihad Force. The group has been blamed for
some of the Christian-Muslim violence that has wracked Poso, where the tourist was
killed on Thursday, and in the neighboring Maluku islands.
But Kalla said he believed people from outside Central Sulawesi were behind the
recent spate of violence there, including the attack on the tourist and on villages in
Poso over the past week.
"It is not the people of Central Sulawesi who did this. It is terror coming from people
outside of the province," Kalla said.
Italian Lorenzo Taddei, 34, was killed when unknown gunmen fired on the bus in which
he was traveling.
It was the fourth attack on intercity buses since agovernment-sponsored peace deal
was signed in December to end two years of intermittent Christian-Muslim fighting in
the area.
Taddei's girlfriend and a French couple traveling on the same bus were not injured in
the attack, but four Indonesian passengers were hurt.
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