Bomb hits Poso, no casualties

Irvan NR, The Jakarta Post, Poso, Central Sulawesi

A low-explosive bomb ripped through an office belonging to bus company PT Omega on Tuesday in Tentena, Poso, causing panic among locals. No fatalities were reported.

Tentena is the capital of North Pamona and home to Christian refugees in Poso, which has been the site of a Muslim-Christian sectarian conflict since 2000.

The explosion destroyed a garage of the PT Omega ticketing office in Tentena, which managed Omega buses plying the Tentena- Palu route.

Sources say the bomb was delivered on Monday night, on an Omega bus that had just arrived from Palu, the capital of Central Sulawesi.

All passengers got off the bus, but a passenger had apparently left a bag behind. The bus driver took the bag to the office and entrusted it to an PT Omega employee, hoping that the owner of the bag would return to claim it.

On Tuesday morning, an Omega employee moved the bag to a garage in the office for unknown reasons.

Some 45 minutes later, an explosion, apparently from the bag, was heard from the garage and caused panic in the surrounding neighborhood. Locals quickly reported the explosion to the police.

Noldy, a local resident who lives some 70 meters from the office, said he was on his way to work when he heard the blast. "I was shocked. I dropped down to the floor on my house and lay there face down," he said.

Chief of Poso Police Adj. Sr. Comr. Abdi Dharma said they were investigating the incident. "We are still investigating who is the owner of this bag," he said.

The government brokered a peace deal in December 2001, bringing a lull to the sectarian conflict, but sporadic violence continues. At least 1,000 people have been killed in the Muslim- Christian conflict that broke out in 2000.

Poso was again rocked by violence last month, when a group of masked gunmen attacked villages in the regency, killing at least 10 people, both Muslims and Christians. Police rounded up several suspected perpetrators and shot dead others in the course of their investigation. Suspects included both locals and outsiders, who had orchestrated the attacks in order to reignite the conflict in the province.