Five held over beheadings in Poso
Antara, Jakarta
Security personnel arrested five people on Wednesday over the beheadings of three Christian girls last month in Poso regency. Separately on the same day, security officers also detained a person in connection with the shooting of two female students on Tuesday evening in the regency.
Brig. Gen. Soenarko Dhanu Artanto, the deputy national police spokesman, said during a news conference here in Jakarta that the police were still determining the roles of the five persons in the beheadings, which took place a few days before the Idul Fitri holiday on Nov. 3 and Nov. 4. The five were taken into police custody after being detained by troops on Monday.
Earlier on Wednesday, a spokesman for the Tadulako military resort, Capt. Abdul Muchsid, gave the Indonesian Military (TNI) credit for catching the five persons. Abdul named the five as Tony Mowala alias Rinto, 51, a former military police officer, Irfan Anjiro, 23, a security guard, Jamiluddin alias Jamil, 25, also a security guard, Ridwan Masero, 25, a farmer, and Saleman Yunus alias Herman, 28, a motorcycle taxi driver. They were arrested separately on Monday in Poso and Ampana town in Tojo Una-Una regency, some 200 kilometers east of Poso.
Troops detained the five after questioning a witness living near the scene of the beheadings in Bukit Bambu, Poso regency. The witness said he had encountered five people leaving the location carrying machetes and sacks, which it is believed contained the severed heads.
The beheadings claimed the lives of three girls studying at a local Christian school, while another female student escaped. Noviana Malewa, the surviving student and key witness, is being treated at the Bhayangkara Hospital in Palu, Central Sulawesi's capital.
The beheadings made national headlines and triggered fears that they would revive sectarian clashes in the volatile regency of Poso, which was the scene of sectarian disturbances in 2000 that claimed the lives of some 2,000 people.
The security situation gradually returned to something approaching normality after a peace pact was signed in Malino, Central Sulawesi, in 2001, but sporadic shooting and bombings still take place in Poso and nearby areas. The worst incident occurred in May this year when a bomb went off in the Christian town of Tentena, killing 22 people.
Meanwhile, military personnel have reportedly arrested a suspect identified as San in connection with the shooting of a Muslim and a Christian girl on Tuesday night in Poso. San was held after witnesses said that San, who has a motorcycle, had given a lift to a person believed to have been the shooter.
The two students were sitting in front of a house on Jl. Gatot Subroto on Tuesday night in Poso when an unidentified person shot them, leaving them badly wounded.