Reinforcements sent to probe Poso attacks<\/p>\n
Irvan NR and Abdul Khalik, The Jakarta Post, Palu\/Jakarta<\/p>\n
The Central Sulawesi provincial police dispatched dozens of
\ndetectives on Monday to the ravaged Poso regency to investigate
\nrecent attacks in two subdistricts here that killed four people.<\/p>\n
In a separate development, a home-made bomb was found on Jl.
\nPulau Nias in Poso regency, adding to the already tension
\nsituation.<\/p>\n
Poso Police chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Abdi Dharma said that the
\ndetectives had been divided into two teams.<\/p>\n
\"One team has been deployed to Kilotrans village in Poso
\nPesisir district, while another team has been dispatched to
\nMarowo village in Ulu Bongka district,\" said Abdi Dharma.<\/p>\n
Kilotrans and Marowo are the two subdistricts where the
\nattacks occurred on Saturday.<\/p>\n
The armed attacks killed four people and badly injured four
\nothers. The deaths and injuries were caused by gunfire.<\/p>\n
Dharma said that the teams were dispatched to the two
\nsubdistricts on Monday morning in order to help local police
\nexpedite their investigations.<\/p>\n
The teams, together with local detectives, then questioned
\nwitnesses and collected evidence in the two subdistricts.<\/p>\n
The detectives have so far been able to identify the physical
\ncharacteristic of the attackers. However, Dharma refused to go
\ninto details, saying that the police were still investigating the
\ncase.<\/p>\n
He acknowledged that police had difficulties in providing
\nsecurity in Poso due to the limited number of officers available
\nand the difficult geographic terrain.<\/p>\n
Most of Poso was thickly forested, providing perfect cover for
\nany would-be attackers. They could quickly launch attacks and
\nthen melt back into the jungle, he said.<\/p>\n
\"We have tightened security in those areas that had been
\nsusceptible to attack, but they simply launched their attacks in
\nother places,\" he said on Monday afternoon.<\/p>\n
Since the attack on their village on Saturday night, the
\nresidents of Marowo have reportedly been taking refuge to safer
\nareas. However, Dharma said that he had no information on the
\nnumber of residents who had fled their homes.<\/p>\n
Despite the arrival of additional detectives, gunfire was
\nstill to be heard on Monday in the Poso Pesisir subdistrict of
\nTiwaa, only a few kilometers away from the subdistricts where the
\nattacks took place on Saturday.<\/p>\n
No one was hurt in the latest shooting incident.<\/p>\n
Locals immediately reported the incident to the police.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile in Jakarta, a police spokesman said that the bomb,
\nwhich was found on Jl. Nias, was composed of low explosives.<\/p>\n
The bomb was found in the early morning in a ruined building
\non Jl. Nias, and was defused by the police bomb squad, said Brig.
\nGen. Soenarko, a spokesman for the National Police.<\/p>\n
He added that as of Monday, 600 reinforcements from the
\npolice's paramilitary Mobile Brigade, one Bomb Squad unit (20
\nofficers) and one police intelligence unit (20 officers) had been
\ndeployed to Poso.<\/p>\n
In addition, a further 700 soldiers have been drafted into the
\narea.<\/p>\n
Poso has been the seen of violence since 1999, when sectarian
\nclashes between Muslims and Christians first broke out in the
\nregency. At least 2,000 people have been killed in the bloody
\nconflict since then. The communal clashes subsided after the
\ngovernment-sponsored Malino Accord in 2001, but regular attacks
\nare still occurring in the regency.<\/p>",
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