Man shot as gunmen strike again in Poso
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.