The Jakarta Post, 7/20/2004 7:03:03 PM
Megawati urges calm after Palu church attack
JAKARTA (Reuters): President Megawati Soekarnoputri promised Christian leaders
on Tuesday that police would capture the gunmen responsible for killing a woman
preacher in the eastern city of Palu and urged them to stay calm.
Gunmen burst into a church on Sunday in Palu, the capital city of Central Sulawesi
province, and shot dead Protestant minister Susianti Tinolele as she was delivering a
sermon. Four teenage churchgoers were also wounded in the attack.
Palu is near the regency of Poso, where more than 2,000 people have died in
Muslim-Christian clashes since 1999.
Indonesia's national police chief arrived in Palu, 1,500 km T(900 miles) northeast of
Jakarta, hours after the incident, and a cabinet minister was due to attend the funeral
later on Tuesday.
Indonesia's top church leaders, who attended the meeting with the president in
Jakarta, said she urged Christians to stay calm and allow police to do their work.
"She has ordered the police to catch the criminals. There is no religious motive. We
should not be provoked," reverend Nathan Setiabudi, head of the Communion of
Churches in Indonesia (PGI), which is the nation's coordinating Protestant body, told
reporters. (*)
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