More bombs discovered in Poso area
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Police and military personnel have again found 13 homemade bombs in the ravaged town of Poso, Central Sulawesi province, sending a signal to Jakarta that security in the area has not yet returned to normal.
The 13 bombs were discovered within the last four days in plantations belong to locals in Tumora and Kawende subdistricts, Poso Pesisir district, said a senior police officer on Sunday.
They were packed inside an 11-centimeter-long plastic pipe having a diameter of five centimeters.
"The bombs were found after the police and military were given tipoffs by local residents," said Adj. Sr. Comr. Agil Assegaff, spokesman of the Sintuwu Maroso joint police-military operation in Central Sulawesi province.
Agil said that security personnel were investigating those who had made and kept the bombs in plantations.
All 13 bombs are now stored at the headquarters of the Sintuwu Maroso operation task force in Poso regency. The bombs have already been defused by the police bomb squad.
The discovery of the 13 bombs was the third-largest in the last 50 days. The first large discovery of bombs occurred on Jan. 19 in Kasiguncu subdistrict, also in Poso Pesisir regency, when a joint police-military team found 27 homemade bombs, 17 bullets of 5.56 caliber, one homemade rifle and two guns.
Later on Feb. 4, 19 other homemade bombs and five homemade rifles were spotted in Toini and Kasiguncu subdistricts, Poso Pesisir regency.
The bombs and rifles were left over from sectarian conflict in Poso regency and the surrounding area in 2000, when over 2,000 Muslims and Christians were killed.
The conflicts forced local residents to produce bombs and rifles in the interests of their own safety. Others produced them for the purposes of revenge.
The conflict largely subsided in 2002 when the rival parties signed a government-sponsored peace pact. However, the situation has remained tense in the religiously divided town of Poso and other neighboring regencies, including Morowali and Tojo Una-Una.
Random attacks on local residents still occurred until the end of last year, with most of the victims innocent people.
In order to restore security in the area, the Central Sulawesi police and the military carried out joint operations in Sintuwu Maroso, starting last year.
Besides restoring security, the police and military are tasked in the operation to search for and locate homemade bombs and rifles produced by locals.
Dozens of homemade bombs and tens of thousands of rifles have already been seized by security personnel, but they believe that there are still many others in the wrong hands.
Possession of the homemade bombs and rifles is strictly "prohibited" as it threatens security in the area.
Agil called on local residents to provide reports on what was going on in their villages to the police.
"They should not be afraid, because we will always keep the identity of the people secret," he Agil.