AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, Tuesday January 1, 2002 5:35 PM
Indonesia sees in 2002 with church bombs, deadly grenade blast
The world's most populous Muslim nation began the New Year with four churches
bombed and one person dead from a grenade blast, after revellers elsewhere in
Indonesia welcomed in 2002 with fireworks and trumpets.
Christian, Adventist and Pentecostal churches in the Central Sulawesi capital of Palu
were rocked by simultaneous blasts as midnight struck, shattering church windows
and injuring one person, deputy national police spokesman Edward Aritonang told
AFP.
"The explosion was so huge it shook our shop 20 meters away," a retailer near the
Adventist church told the state Antara newsagency.
In the light of day a fourth bomb exploded as worshippers gathered to celebrate New
Year's Day mass at another Pentecostal church at 9:30 am, injuring two policemen
who were inspecting the parcel it was wrapped in, Aritonang said.
Palu Chief Brigadier Paliling (eds: one name) told AFP by phone that one of the
officers was being treated in hospital.
The blasts pierce a shaky calm that had settled over Palu since December 20 when
warring Christian and Muslim communities signed a peace accord, following attacks
by militant Muslim fighters on Christian villages in November that killed nine and sent
thousands fleeing through the forests.
The attacks revived simmering sectarian tensions which have seen sporadic fighting
and the deaths of some 1,000 people since mid-2000.
Aritonang said the situation in Palu Tuesday was "now under control."
In Jakarta a suspected grenade exploded in front of a restaurant in the city's southern
entertainment district at 3:30 am (2030 GMT Monday), blowing off a man's hand and
killing him, Aritonang said.
The victim, Hasballah, 21, was rushed to hospital after his hand was blown off and his
leg injured, but died three hours later, Aritonang said.
Police were investigating whether Hasballah had been carrying the grenade himself.
"It may have been thrown, it's also possible that he was carrying the grenade himself.
We are still investigating," Aritonang told AFP.
Police forensics experts had confirmed that the explosive was a grenade and
Hasballah's companion, who fled when it exploded, was being questioned, the SCTV
network reported.
The blast marred otherwise peaceful celebrations in the capital. Revellers crammed
Jakarta's main streets letting off officially-banned fireworks and blowing trumpets,
under the gaze of 21,000 police and 7,000 soldiers deployed for security.
Traffic ground to a halt in the city center as family crowds filled the central roundabout
to watch fireworks over the international hotels that surround the landmark Welcome
Monument in the middle of the roundabout.
The high security deployment reflected authorities' nervousness of a repeat of the
Christmas Eve bombing spree in 2000 when blasts rocked churches across the
archipelago, killing at least 15 people.
President Megawati Sukarnoputri in a televised end of year speech on Monday night
proclaimed she had achieved political stability in the tumultuous conflict and
disaster-ridden nation, but conceded that many of the troubles she inherited when she
took power in July still persisted.
"Not all problems have been settled. We still have to face a lot more problems,"
Antara quoted her as saying.
Megawati, a former opposition leader who rose to prominence on the back of massive
demonstrations by her supporters, urged Indonesians to end their almost daily street
protests.
"We should stop using 'street democracy' as we often see that it hurts the national
interests and could be mistakenly used by certain groups to disrupt public interests,"
she was quoted as saying by the Jakarta Post online.
Copyright © 2001 AFP. All rights reserved.
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