Hunt on for killer of Poso village chief

Hunt on for killer of Poso village chief

Ruslan Sangadji, The Jakarta Post/Poso

A top police officer claimed on Saturday that police
investigators had identified the person who allegedly killed a
Christian village head in Poso regency.

After questioning witnesses, police investigators said that
the alleged killer of Carminalis Ndele was a resident of the
neighboring subdistrict of Torokondo.

Poso Police chief Adj.Sr. Comr. Abdi Dharma Sitepu said the
police were still looking for the person.

According to witnesses, Carminalis who was the head of
Pinedapa subdistrict, Poso Pesisir district, was picked up by
somebody earlier on Thursday night. The person, who was riding a
Honda Supra motorcycle and was apparently acquainted with
Carminalis, wore a T-shirt and the sort of brown trousers
normally worn by police officers.

But around 1 a.m. on Friday, Carminalis' severed head was
found in Sayo subdistrict, which is a predominantly Muslim area.
Carminalis' body was found in Gunung Potong area, some 10
kilometers from the severed head on Friday.

Abdi Dharma said that the police had tracked down the suspect
to his house in Torokondo subdistrict, but he had already left.

Torokondo is a predominantly Muslim subdistrict, which became
a base for Muslim gangs during the sectarian conflict in the
regency in 2000. Muslim and Christian gangs were locked in bloody
conflict, which resulted in the deaths of some 2,000 Muslims and
Christians in the regency.

The situation was still tense in Poso, after the murder of
Carminalis. Police held random checks of passersby and cars on
Saturday along major streets in Poso, in search of weapons and
bombs. Tight security measures were also imposed at Carminalis'
burial.

Separately, police personnel in the neighboring regency of
Donggala, some hundreds of kilometers from Poso, arrested three
men on Saturday for allegedly killing a local resident, Sabri
Sumaila, which had sparked an ethnic clash in the area.

The three men acknowledged that they killed Sabri, 38, after
he had stolen cacao beans from the family plantation in Sidondo
subdistrict.

After they killed Sabri they dumped his body in a forest,
nearby Sidondo subdistrict on Saturday last week, Antara news
agency reported.

The case sparked a clash between the Kaili and Bugis tribes,
after people from the Bugis tribe accused members of the Kaili
tribe of abducting and murdering Sabri, a Bugis. The clash on
Wednesday left two people dead.