Masariku Network, Senin 19 Juli 2004
Shootings in Central Sulawesi
My dear friends in Christ,
I hope all of you are doing fine. Here I come to you again with another very unpleasant
news about Central Sulawesi. FYI, I just came back from Central Sulawesi: Palu,
Tentena (10 - 14 July 04) leaving Manado on July 8 evening and in Tolitoli on 15-17,
leaving Tentena on July 14 noon. We went by 2 cars started from Manado. My
organization: SAG had a Training program for 18 Sunday School teachers from
Tentena and its surroundings and 6 from Palu, while at the same time Crisis Center
SAG conducted a workshop on Reconciliation Empowerment for 24 IDPs in Tentena.
Everything went well, but suddenly on the way back home to Manado, I received 2
very surprising news especially about the last one as I just arrived home. Here are the
news:
1. On Friday, July 16 at around 18.30 local time, in Pandiri Atas village, appr 18 km
from Poso city direction to Tentena, people found a dead body recognized as Melky
alias Kiky, male, 25 (Moslem). He was stabbed all over his body, hands, neck and
ead. One of his tombs was cut. He lives in Bonesompe in Poso City. Melky is a
motor bike driver who serves people in Poso until Tentena (people pay him for taking
them on his motor bike). Motor bike is used as one of the public transport FYI,
nowadays the Moslems and Christians begin to feel more free to come and go either
to Tentena for the Moslems, and to Poso City for the Christians. At appr 13.00 people
in Kawua village, 2 km from Poso City, saw Melky driving his motor bike, a Suzuki
Shogun type, with plate no. DN 3531 AT, with a Yonatan (Christian), 23, on the back
(from his ID card, Yonatan is from Kancuu village) heading to Tentena. Around 13.30
people in Pandiri village saw Yonatan driving the same motor bike alone. With this
report a team of Poso police lead by the head of Poso police, after him, then on
unday, 18 July at 18.00 he was caugh in Pancasila village, 75 km from Tentena
direction to Pendolo. Yonatan is now detained in Poso Police station. According to
the police assumption, Yonatan killed Melky in Pandiri Atas village then hid the body,
after that he drove back to Kawua, but then on the same day (maybe when the day is
dark already, because no one saw him), he ran with the same motor bike to
Pancasila village.
2. On Saturday, 17 at appr 20.30 Mrs. Helmy Tombiling, 35 (Christian), lives in Sayo,
Poso City, was found dead in front of her house. She was stabbed to death 9 times in
her chest and stomach. Mrs. Helmy's husband, James Harimisa is a military and is
assigned in Poso Military station. Both of them are originally from North Sulawesi.
Mrs. Helmy has a small business in front of their house: selling gasoline. According
to eyewitnesses, she came out from her house because there were 2 men with
athletic body shape and tall riding motor bike, again with Suzuki Shogun type, plate
no. DN 4969 AD want to buy gasoline, but before she did anything they directly
stabbed her until she died. Her body is now on the way to North Sulawesi by an
ambulance and will be buried in Kali village in Pineleng District, North Sulawesi. FYI,
all vehicles and motor bikes with plate numbers DN are from Central Sulawesi, and for
Palu area always start with A, and for Poso District starts with E. It means the 2
motor bikes are registered in Palu.
3. On Sunday, 18, a pastor, Susianty Tinulele used to be called as Susi, 26, originally
from Wawopada village near Beteleme village in Morowali District, was shot to death
with a bullet near her right ear, while she was still on the pulpit. Susi was just being
ordained as a pastor in GKST. The shooting took place while she is leading the
Sunday evening worship (usually starts at 18.00) in one of the congregations of
Central Sulawesi Christian Church/GKST (GKST is Rev. Damanik's church) named
Efatah. She just finished her preaching and was asking the vocal group to sing. Four
of the worshipers, members of Efatah congregation were also shot. They are: Kris
Midianto, male, 18, was shot on his right thigh, Farid Mehingko, male, 15, was shot
on his left knee, Lustiani, female, 15, was shot on her left thigh, now they are in Budi
agung hospital in Palu, and in Salvation Army (Bala Keselamatan/BK) Palu, Desrianti
Tengkede, female, 17, was shot on her left forehead went down through her right eye
part. Her middle finger and ring finger of her left hand were also shot. She is now in a
very critical or coma condition. According to the eyewitnesses, the pastor was shot
by a man from the church front door which appr 25 m from the pulpit. He came with
his 3 other friends riding 2 Yamaha motor bikes. All these 4 men wearing black
masks. Again they are all tall with athletic body shapes. 2 from these 4 men shooting
the worship attendees using machine gun SS 1 type. After shooting, they ran away to
the same direction.
My dear friends, from the 2 last incidents it is proved that the attackers are
professional or well trained men and the actions were planned carefully and had been
waiting for some time for a right moment to be in action, because the way Mrs. Helmy
was stabbed and Susi was shot, shown that these cannot be done by average people.
Please keep praying for the better condition in Poso, Palu and Central Sulawesi in
general.
Yours in Christ always,
Mona
PS. While typing this I just received a call from Palu saying that Desrianti Tengkede
just passed away at 02.05 in the same hospital. The operation could not save her life.
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