Five held over beheadings in Poso
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.