Man shot as gunmen strike again in Poso

Ruslan Sangadji, The Jakarta Post, Palu

Tension again gripped the city of Palu in Central Sulawesi on Friday after a man on a motorcycle fired a hail of bullets at a house being used as a church on Thursday evening, injuring the owner.

The attack on the house, which is located only 50 meters south of local police and military posts, was the third incident in the regency in the past week.

The owner of the house, Hans Lamiti, 25, was shot in the back as he fled the scene.

Hans, who was sitting on his balcony at the time of the attack, said two men on a motorcycle approached his house shortly after 6 p.m.

The bike stopped and the passenger shot at him twice. Fleeing from the bullets, Hans was shot in the back and the men sped away.

Yohana, Hans' wife, said she was watching television when she heard the gunshots. She later heard her husband crying out following the shooting, and she raced over to help.

"I saw two people on the motorcycle, a red Suzuki Shogun," Yohana said.

The house was being used for prayer meetings of the local Bethania congregation, whose members are still afraid to attend sermons in churches in Poso after frequent attacks on the houses of worship.

Deputy chief of Poso regental police Comr. Rudy Tranggono said on Friday police believed the gunman used an FN revolver in the attack.

He said police chased the two assailants after the attack but lost them.

The attack on Thursday night followed a similar armed attack earlier on Wednesday last week in the neighboring district of Poso Pesisir.

Ni Nengah Angrenadi, a Hindu, was killed during the attack, while two other people, believed to be Christians, were hospitalized for medical treatment after they were wounded.

Earlier on the same day last week, a group of people stabbed to death two others, both Christians, in Jono Oge, Donggala, the regency neighboring Poso.

The last attack on a church in Poso took place on May 18, when a gunmen shot dead a clergywoman, Susianti, when she was delivering a sermon in a church. The perpetrators are still at large.

The attack in May followed another church attack a month earlier in the regency. In the April attack, two unidentified gunmen stormed into a church in the regency, firing a hail of bullets at a congregation attending an Easter sermon and injuring seven, including a four-year-old girl.

No one has been arrested for the incidents although thousands of extra police have been deployed to the region to increase security there.

Spats of violence are not uncommon in Poso, a religiously divided region, after bloody sectarian conflicts broke out in the regency in 2000.

The conflicts dragged on until 2002, killing about 2,000 Muslims and Christians and forcing dozens of others fled the regency for safety.

Fighting died down in 2002, following a government-sponsored peace pact, but sporadic violence has continued.