Arms seized in S. Sulawesi raid

SABBANG, South Sulawesi (JP): Hundreds of Molotov cocktails, 29 makeshift cannons and ammunition were among weapons seized in a police raid on arms here.

Police said they had also seized 1,448 home-made guns from villagers involved in communal clashes in Sabbang district, Luwu regency, here last month in which at least six were killed.

Police have recorded a total of 26 deaths and five injured police officers since violence between warring villagers broke out in August last year.

But Pare-Pare police chief Col. Mardjito, who is in command of the weapons seizure operation, said on Friday that almost all 5,000 villagers here at least have one of these home-made guns known as paporo.

"We've been persuasive in asking them to hand over their guns," Mardjito told The Jakarta Post here. A number of villagers had handed over weapons themselves to police, he said.

Around 30 police, backed by the Army, are involved in the operation with the code name ZB 99. They are authorized to soot anyone resisting orders.

Tension among villagers remained high on Friday.

Luwu is 470 kilometers north of the provincial capital of Ujungpandang.

Violence between villagers has been colored by inter-ethnic animosity involving locals and migrants from Java, Bali and Tana Toraja in South Sulawesi.

As of Friday, many villagers had still not returned home from Palopo, where they were seeking shelter.

Palembangan, 36, a villager from Kampung Baru village here, was among the few who returned. Some of his friends who owned a cacao plantation in an "enemy" village did not dare harvest crops. Most who returned were natives of Palopo.

Mardjito said police have arrested 40 people. (27)