Barnabas Fund, 2 January 2002
FOUR CHURCHES BOMBED ON NEW YEAR'S EVE INDONESIA
Windows were shattered when bombs exploded in three churches in Palu, Central
Sulawesi, at midnight on New Year’s Eve. Later a bomb exploded during a morning
service at another church, wounding two policemen who were working to defuse it.
The explosions were an unsettling beginning to the New Year for Christians in
Sulawesi. Some reports say the bombs were thrown at the churches by men on
motorbikes. In Ambon, the capital of nearby Maluku province, a grenade was thrown
into a house and exploded injuring one of the residents. Several days earlier on
Thursday 27 December shots were fired at a Christian speedboat in Ambon Bay
killing one of the two men on board. On the same day at least two policemen and two
civilians were reportedly injured when a mob from the Muslim area of Tantui-Galala
gathered to launch an assault on the Christian district of Galala-Atas. Soldiers
defending the Christian area fired at the mob leading to a gunfight in which police and
marines are also reported to have become embroiled.
Despite these events the Christmas and New Year period has not seen the
wide-spread violence which the Islamic militant group Laskar Jihad had threatened
and many Christians, particularly in Sulawesi and Maluku, had feared. Tens of
thousands of police were deployed by the Government across Indonesia over the last
two weeks to protect churches and prevent a recurrence of the tragedy of Christmas
Eve 2000 when some 24 bombs exploded in churches across the country killing 18
people. Police in Sulawesi are reported to have arrested two people in connection to
the latest attacks on the four churches.
PRAY
Praise God that wide-spread attacks against Christians and their churches did not
occur over Christmas and the New Year, and that the police and army seem for now
to be acting fairly to protect Christians.
Thank God that in deploying large numbers of police the Government has taken
decisive action to protect Christians and their churches which may well have saved
many lives. In Jakarta alone 15,000 police officers were deployed to guard churches.
Pray for strength, encouragement and support for those Indonesian Christians who did
suffer violent attacks this Christmas.
Pray for all who have been injured or lost loved ones during raids from Islamic militants
over the past year in Sulawesi and the Malukus. Pray that no further attacks against
Christians will occur, and for a final end to the ongoing violence in these blood-soaked
regions of Indonesia.
BARNABAS FUND E-MAIL NEWS SERVICE.
The Barnabas Fund’s e-mail news service provides our supporters with short urgent
news briefs and prayer requests for suffering Christians around the world. Please do
share these news items with your Christian friends and churches. All news items are
available on our website in a more colourful user-friendly presentation format which
you can access, print and pass on.
If you are not already receiving these news briefs directly from the Barnabas Fund and
would like to, please contact us with your name, postal and e-mail addresses, and
details of the church you attend.
The Barnabas Fund, The Old Rectory, River Street, PEWSEY,
Wiltshire, SN9 5DB, UK, Tel 01672 564938, Fax 01672 565030,
E-mail info@barnabasfund.org Web www.barnabasfund.org
|
