5 killed in fresh Poso communal conflict

Badri Djawara, The Jakarta Post, Poso

At least five people were killed and five others were injured when two rival sectarian groups clashed in the Central Sulawesi riot-torn town of Poso late on Tuesday.

The clash between the Muslim Laskar Jihad (holy war fighters) and Christian fighters occurred in Tabalu, Betalemba and Patiunga villages in Poso Pesisir district, Poso Regency. The clash was apparently a continuation of a riot between the two rival groups in Betalemba village on Tuesday afternoon.

Sources at the Poso Police precinct said that two of the dead were identified as 29-year-old Abdullah and 14-year-old Masudin from Laskar Jihad and 26-year-old Saad from the same group, who suffered gunshot wounds. The sources said the other three dead and four wounded were from the Christian side. The sources, however, did not identify them.

At least 76 houses, one church and one elementary school building were burned during the clash in Betalemba village. In Patiunga village, ten houses were also burned in the riot.

The tragic clash prompted a wave of people to leave their home villages for safer areas. Some of them left for the provincial capital Palu and others to nearby villages.

Chief spokesman of the Central Sulawesi Police, Adj. Sr. Comr. Agus Sugianto said that the three villages had been plagued by renewed religious tension when 800 to 1,000 people crowded the villages on Tuesday afternoon.

Poso police, he said, had deployed dozens of officers from the police elite Mobile Brigade to the troubled villages. "By (Wednesday), the police had managed to control the situation," he said.

Agus said that they had not yet been able to arrest any member of the rival groups involved in the clash. "Besides we were outnumbered, the group members were very quick to flee into the jungle to avoid the police," he said.

He also said that chief of the provincial police Brig. Gen. Zainal Abidin was in Poso to monitor the situation.