Further terror hits Poso, two shot dead

Ruslan Sangadji, The Jakarta Post/Poso, Central Sulawesi

Another wave of terror hit the city of Poso in Central Sulawesi when two men were shot dead by unidentified people on Wednesday night and early Thursday morning.

Budianto, 26, an ojek (motorcycle taxi) driver, was shot while eating dinner with his wife and child at 8:30 p.m. local time on Wednesday in his house in Gebang Rejo, Poso Kota.

He was rushed to Poso General Hospital with a bullet wound to the temple, but he died the next morning.

Budianto's wife, Sumiati, told The Jakarta Post that she saw four men on two motorcycles shoot her husband, who fell to the ground. The bullet entered his left temple and exited the right side of his head.

"I did not hear any shots. People say the shooters might have used silencers," Sumiati said.

She was unable to identify the men or the motorcycle brands because it was dark.

Eight hours after the first shooting, a neighbor of Budianto's, Sarlito, was shot in the street just 100 meters from Budianto's house, when he was walking to the mosque for the dawn prayer at 4:45 a.m.

Sarlito, 48, a handicraftsman, died after being shot twice in the right side of the chest and left part of the face. He also had wounds around his chin.

Police found spent bullet shells of .38 caliber pistols at the scene.

Central Sulawesi Police chief Brig. Gen. Aryanto Sutadi said that both victims had been targeted by the shooters as they often testified in cases of violence in Poso.

National Police chief Gen. Sutanto said in Jakarta that the shootings were not related to previous incidents in Poso, including bomb explosions.

"The shootings were ordinary criminal acts," he said as quoted by Antara.

Sutanto said the Central Sulawesi Police were investigating the cases and he expected they would solve them shortly.

Poso has a violent history. Two years of communal violence in the province killed more than 1,000 people before an uneasy, short-lived peace was reached in 2001.

Two deadly explosions killed 21 people in Tentena market in Poso regency in May of this year, the deadliest terrorist attack in the country since the Bali bombings. They were followed by two more explosions in late June but there were no victims as the bombs were low explosives.

Meanwhile, the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) said that the latest shootings illustrated the lack of seriousness on the part of security personnel in improving security in Poso.

Kontras said that since 2003, there had been 26 mysterious shootings in the relatively small Poso area, in which most of the perpetrators had not been caught and their motives remain unclear.

"(We) urge the government to evaluate the performance of security agencies, including the intelligence office there," Kontras said in a statement.