Fresh violence breaks out in Poso, 4 arrested

Fabiola Desy Unidjaja and La Remmy, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta/Palu

Unidentified gangs launched a new attack on Friday in Poso regency, Central Sulawesi, while police captured four suspects in connection with a previous violence a week ago.

The four were arrested after a hilltop gunfight in Beteleme village in neighboring Morowali regency, where mysterious gunmen had killed three on Oct. 10, National Police Operations Chief Insp. Gen. Dewa Astika said yesterday.

He declined to identify the suspects accused of involvement in the Beteleme attack.

"We are interrogating these men," he said after a meeting at the office of the Coordinating Minister of Political and Security affairs.

He said the police seized rifles and homemade bombs from the suspects.

Security forces have been intensifying the hunt for the masked gunmen who have killed at least 13 people, including the three in Beteleme, in the past two weeks in a series of well-coordinated raids on villages. Authorities believe the gunmen are "outsiders".

In the latest violence, the unidentified gunmen set fire to a small hut used for processing wood and damaged a truck at around 3:20 a.m. on Friday in Gebangrejo, Poso Kota subdistrict.

The attack came just hours after chief security minister Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono left Central Sulawesi on Thursday after a three-day visit.

Police said no injuries were reported in the attack, although the attackers fired several shots.

Similar predawn attacks were launched last Sunday in three predominantly Christian villages, and at least nine local people were killed. The three killed in Beteleme were also Christians.

Another man was found dead on Thursday after having been reported missing by his family after Sunday's mysterious attacks.

Central Sulawesi Police chief Brig. Gen. Taufik Ridha, who was in Poso on Friday morning, immediately visited the scene in Gebangrejo, a predominantly Muslim neighborhood.

He could not determine whether Friday's incident was connected with the previous attacks as an investigation was just beginning.

Taufik said the arsonists fled Gebangrejo before police personnel arrived.

They burned a hut belonging to local villager Sukiman, 50, and damaged a truck owned by Mahyun Mahmid, 53, head of the Poso land affairs office.

"The car's front windows were shattered. Its wheels and other parts had been doused with kerosene to burn the truck. Because police arrived immediately, they (the gunmen) were unable to light the truck on fire," Taufik said.

He strongly suspects that the attackers were attempting to spark anger among local residents to provoke renewed fighting between Muslims and Christians in the area. During a very violent two-year period from 1999 to 2001 some 2,000 people were killed from both sides.

Peace was largely restored in the religiously divided town after the December 2001 peace deal was brokered by the government.

Spokesman for the Central Sulawesi Police Adj. Sr. Comr. Agus Sugianto said the hunt for the mysterious gunmen would continue across Poso and Morowali.

Police found eleven 5.56 caliber bullet casings and one live bullet, as well as kerosene containers at the scene of Friday's incident, he said.

He said police in Morowali had found what was believed to be one of the gang's safe houses.

The police also discovered ammunition believed to belong to the attackers, deputy Central Sulawesi Police chief Sr. Comr. Sukirno said but declined to give more details.

Security authorities would not publicly speculate on the precise identify of the perpetrators, but government officials claimed they were "well-trained" outsiders who were working with a handful of local residents.

Minister Susilo said more combat troops would be deployed to jungles and mountainous areas to find the training camps of the gunmen.

An intelligence operation would also be launched to identify the mysterious attackers and prevent further attacks in Poso.

Around 300 more police personnel were deployed to Poso earlier this week to help existing security forces prevent further violence.

The renewed violence has come just a few months after the Indonesian Military (TNI) withdrew more than 1,000 troops from Poso as the government decided the district was secure.

Local residents have said they saw firearms and other weapons similar to those belonging to the security forces when the masked gunmen raided their villages last Sunday.