ASSOCIATED PRESS, Saturday December 1, 2001 7:44 AM ET
Thousands of Indonesia Christians Flee
By SLOBODAN LEKIC, Associated Press Writer
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) - Thousands of Christian villagers on Indonesia's Sulawesi
island are fleeing attacks by armed Muslim paramilitaries, clerics and media reports
said Saturday.
Refugees are being housed in churches and government buildings, said Langgino
Sangkide, a Roman Catholic priest from the town of Tentena.
``Thousands have fled,'' he said Saturday. ``What could they do? Their houses have
been burned. The police came yesterday, but it was too late.''
The Jakarta Post newspaper reported that hundreds of homes in settlements around
the coastal town of Poso had been destroyed by uniformed members of the Laskar
Jihad militia group.
Fighting between Muslim and Christian villagers in Sulawesi, about 1,000 miles
northeast of Jakarta, has claimed at least 1,000 lives in the last two years. Dozens
have been killed in recent weeks.
Laskar Jihad, based on Java island, has been accused of stoking a sectarian conflict
in eastern Maluku province that has claimed about 9,000 lives since 1999.
A militia spokesman in Jakarta confirmed the group had been involved in fighting in the
region but refused to comment on the latest reports.
The group's Web site claimed that attacks on Muslims were being organized by
Christian priests.
The Jakarta Post quoted Sulewesi's Roman Catholic bishop, Josef Suwatan, as
saying armed militiamen had used bulldozers to destroy homes, churches and
schools.
The United Nations (news - web sites) has warned that increasing tension in the
region could trigger a flood of refugees. At least 50,000 people have already been
displaced.
Suwatan appealed to the government to restore law and order in the region.
The government of President Megawati Sukarnoputri has been reluctant to rein in
Muslim militants. Analysts say Megawati is indebted to conservative Muslim parties
that supported her campaign to oust reformist president Abdurrahman Wahid in July.
Indonesia is the world's most populous Muslim nation. Nearly 85 percent of its 203
million people are Muslim. The rest are Christian, Hindu or Buddhist.
Copyright © 2001 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
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