Hundreds of bombs, weapons confiscated in Poso arms searches
Ruslan Sangadji, Poso
A joint police and military unit found at least 168 homemade bombs, 102 firearms and 485 live bullets during three months of door-to-door searches for weapons since January in Poso regency, Central Sulawesi.
Provincial police chief Brig. Gen. Taufik Ridha could not give an exact figure on Tuesday for the number of weapons confiscated during a follow-up operation this month.
However, among the arms seized this month were a live hand grenade, two revolvers, a bayonet and 27 bows, he added.
The arms searches were launched to prevent more attacks across Poso and neighboring Manokwari regency. There has been a series of attacks recently by "unidentified" gunmen despite the signing of a peace accord in December 2001.
The latest attack was on a church in Kilo village, Poso Pesisir subdistrict, which injured six Christians during Easter services on April 10.
Earlier, gunmen shot dead the Reverend Ferdy Wuisan and injured a woman lecturer, Rosia Pilongo, from the Poso-based Sintuwu Maroso University (Unsimar).
The police have distributed sketches of the suspected attackers, who are believed to be living in Poso under the protection of certain hard-liners.
"We suspect that the perpetrators have not gone away, but are still in Poso," Taufik said.
He said the police had identified one of the motorcycles used in the April 10 shooting -- a Suzuki Shogun with registration number DN-2769-EF.
The public has been asked to immediately inform local police stations if the come across such a motorcycle.
In an effort to curb further violence, some 800 Muslims, Christians and Hindus from Poso Pesisir gathered on April 26 to discuss peace along with senior figures from the Central Sulawesi government, police and military.
The gathering was held in the hall of the SMK Negeri I senior high school in the subdistrict for the purpose of finding a way to end the attacks.
Local Islamic leader N. Lanantju said a "security disturbance group" was to blame for the recent shooting incidents, adding that Muslims were also the victims.
"Such violence does not reflect the feelings of Muslims. These are savage and inhuman acts. Therefore, I call on all of us to wake up and to fight those security disturbers," he told the meeting.
Local Christian leader Jhon Tongku concurred, saying the perpetrators were not real Muslims, but a handful of people who did not want see peace in Poso.
Senior official Gumyadi, who represented the Central Sulawesi governor during the meeting, urged local people to help restore and maintain security in Poso.
"Maintaining security is not only the responsibility of the authorities. Everybody is responsible for this," he said.
Meanwhile, the chief of Poso's special security operation, Sr. Comr. M. Rum, was replaced by Sr. Comr. Tatang Somantri, currently the Central Sulawesi Police's chief of detectives.
Rum will return to the Mobile Brigade paramilitary police headquarters in Kelapa Dua in Jakarta after being replaced on April 26.
On Monday, he officially handed over his baton to Tatang during a modest ceremony at Poso police headquarters.
Taufik said that Rum's replacement was part of a normal rotation as his six-month term ended this month. He stressed that it had nothing to do with the renewed violence in Poso.