Tentena braces for final onslaught
December 2, 2001
Dear Friend,
From Jeff Hammond, I'm in Jakarta as I write this, and it's 11.15pm Saturday night (in
Tentena it's 12.15am Sunday morning). I have just been on the phone with Tentena.
The village of Sepe, one of the last Christian strongholds has fallen and is being
looted, destroyed and burned to the ground by the jihad terrorists, even as I type. The
residents of Tentena have been awoken and all men are being put on guard around the
city while the women and children have packed small bags to prepare to evacuate into
the jungles. If these terrorists make it through to Tentena, the massacre will begin.
We could be within 48 hours of the final onslaught. Urgent pressure must be put on
the Indonesian Govt, or if they continue to condone this terrorism and genocide to
take place, they must face the condemnation of the international community.
Pressure on man may not be enough, nor soon enough, so we need to cry out to the
Lord for His supernatural intervention. Jeff Hammond
Indonesian Christians 'under attack'
December 1, 2001 Posted: 5:23 PM HKT (0923 GMT) JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) --
Thousands of Christian villagers on Indonesia's Sulawesi island are fleeing
attacks by Muslim paramilitaries armed with machine guns and rocket
launchers, clerics and media reports said Saturday.
"Thousands have fled," said Langgino Sangkide, a Roman Catholic priest
from the town of Tentena. "What could they do, their houses have been
burned?"
"The police came yesterday, but it was too late," he said, adding that people
were being housed in churches and local government buildings.
The Jakarta Post daily reported that hundreds of homes in settlements around
Poso, a coastal town in Central Sulawesi province, had been destroyed by
uniformed members of the Laskar Jihad militia group. Fighting between
Muslim and Christian villagers in the province, located about 1,600 kilometers
(1,000 miles) northeast of Jakarta, has claimed at least 1,000 lives since it first
broke out two years ago.
It abated at the start of this year but flared again in September with the arrival
of 200 members of the Laskar Jihad militia.
Dozens have been killed in recent weeks. Laskar Jihad, based on Indonesia's
dominant Java island, gained notoriety in eastern Maluku province where it
was accused of stoking a sectarian conflict that has claimed about 9,000 lives
since 1999. A Laskar Jihad spokesman in Jakarta confirmed the group had
been involved in fighting between Christian and Muslim groups in the region
but refused to comment specifically on the latest reports. But the group's
website, under a banner reading "Onward to Poso," claimed that attacks on
Muslims were being organized by Christian priests. The Jakarta Post quoted
Sulewesi's Roman Catholic Bishop Josef Suwatan as saying militiamen armed
with AK47 assault rifles, light machine guns and grenade launchers had used
bulldozers to destroy homes, churches and schools.
The United Nations has warned that increasing tension in the region could
trigger a flood of refugees. At least 50,000 people have already been
displaced by the conflict.
Suwatan appealed to the government to quickly beef up security forces in the
region and restore law and order.
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, whom she succeeded in office following a
parliamentary coup in July.
Indonesia is the world's most populous Muslim nation. Nearly 85 percent of its
203 million people are officially registered as Muslims. The remainder are
Christians, Hindus or Buddhists.
Sincerely,
Ann Buwalda
Jubilee Campaign USA
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