JP/4/poso
Guns used in Poso attacks came from RP: Police chief
The Jakarta Post Jakarta
Firearms used in a series of attacks last month that killed 10 people, mostly Christian villagers, in the Central Sulawesi regency of Poso came from the southern Philippines, National Police chief Gen. Da'i Bachtiar said on Sunday.
"Our investigation in the field shows that the weapons used by the assailants were imported from the southern Philippines," he was quoted by Antara as saying in Kendari, Southeast Sulawesi.
However, he did not say how the guns reached Indonesia. The southern Philippines is home to Muslim separatist rebels fighting for independence. It is a short journey by boat from Sulawesi island.
Da'i made the statement after visiting Poso along with Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare Jusuf Kalla and Minister of Social Affairs Bachtiar Chamsyah on Saturday to hold talks with local religious and community leaders over the renewed violence.
While in Poso, Da'i said the perpetrators of the recent attacks might have links to the bombers of the JW Marriott Hotel in Jakarta.
But he stopped short of saying they were connected to Jamaah Islamiyah (JI), although he said several suspects in the hotel bombing had admitted they knew the Poso gunmen.
Kalla, who brokered the 2001 peace pact to end the two-year sectarian fighting in Poso that claimed some 1,000 lives, said earlier he suspected that the renewed attacks on Christians in the regency were the handy work of JI.
JI is believed to have masterminded the Oct. 12, 2002 bombings in Bali, which killed 202 people, and the Aug. 5, 2003 hotel blast that left 12 dead.
Saturday's dialog was aimed at encouraging residents in Poso to give any information that could help authorities uncover the group's network, find its training camps and catch five more suspects still at large.
Police released on Friday the sketches of the five currently being hunted. They were identified as two locals -- Basri and Ramlan -- and three men from Java -- Musa, Musap and Ilham.
In an intensive hunt for the Poso attackers, a joint military and police team captured 16 suspects and killed six others in shootouts in jungles.
One of the detainees and one of the dead suspects hailed from Lamongan, East Java, the hometown of convicted Bali bombers Amrozi, Ali Imron and Ali Ghufron alias Mukhlas, police have said.
The suspects were blamed for the Oct. 12 predawn raids on mainly Christian villages in Poso, which killed 10 people. Two days earlier, three others were killed in an attack by similar gunmen in the neighboring regency of Morowali.
They will be charged under Law No. 15/2003 on terrorism, police said.
The killings raised fears of a return to Muslim-Christian fighting in the religiously divided town of Poso.
Meanwhile, Minister Kalla urged the conflicting parties in Poso to bury the hatchet following the 2001 peace accord.
Local people should also reject outsiders entering their areas without clear identities or objectives, he was quoted by Antara as saying on Saturday.
Those responsible for public disorder in Poso should be considered their common enemy and be resisted jointly, he added.
The minister said the signatories of the peace deal would be invited to a special meeting after the Idul Fitri holiday to discuss the latest security developments in Poso and Morowali.
Other community and youth figures, as well as tribal leaders from the two districts will also attend the meeting, he added.
Besides security issues, the meeting will also discuss employment opportunities for the increasing number of job seekers in the areas, Kalla said.
The lack of employment opportunities was partly to blame for the increasing intensity of conflict in Poso, he added.
Also speaking in the Central Sulawesi of Palu on Saturday, Minister Bachtiar Chamsyah made available Rp 30 million in humanitarian aid for victims of the recent attacks.