Ecumenical News International, 22 July 2004
Slaying of Indonesian Presbyterian sparks religious violence
fears
Michael Mettason
Bangkok (ENI). Christians fear a new round of religious conflict after a gunman fired
into a Presbyterian church on Sunday, instantly killing the pastor and injuring four
young worshippers.
The attack took place in the provincial town of Palu in eastern Indonesia's Sulawesi
province where some 2000 people died in bloody clashes between Muslims and
Christians in 2000 and 2001.
Witnesses said about five men on two motorcycles approached the Effata
Presbyterian Church at about 7 p.m. Three of the men waited outside, while the two
others stood at the church entrance. One, described as "calm, unhurried and
professional", opened fire with an automatic weapon, killing the Rev. Susianti Tinulele,
aged 29, who had just completed her sermon. Four girls in the congregation were
injured, one critically when she was shot in the eye. The attackers then sped away.
President Megawati Soekarnoputri met Christian leaders on 20 July, and promised
them police would capture the perpetrators, while appealing for calm.
Ruyandi Hutasoit, chairman of the Christian-based Prosperous Peace Party also
appealed to Christians not to carry out revenge attacks against Muslims. "We call on
all sides to keep to themselves and not to carry out acts of retaliation, because only
God has the right of retaliation," he said.
Nathan Setiabudi, chairman of the Indonesian Communion of Churches, grouping
Indonesian Protestants, said after the meeting with Megawati and Hutasoit that the
church shootings were a purely criminal matter and not religiously motivated.
But in Jakarta, Home Affairs Minister Hari Sabarno was quoted as saying the gunmen
were attempting to re-ignite religious conflict. Christians account for about 8 per cent
of the 238 million people in Indonesia, the world's largest Muslim nation.
The situation was thought to have been relatively peaceful recently, though sectarian
violence in the neighbouring Maluku islands claimed about 8000 lives between 1999
and 2002. Much of the violence was blamed on the Java-based militant Islamic group
Laskar Jihad and feuding factions of the Indonesian Defence Forces.
In October 2003, masked gunmen killed 13 Christian villagers in the Sulawesi
province's Morowali and Poso districts.
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