Peace in Poso still fragile

Peace in Poso still fragile

Ridwan Max Sijabat, The Jakarta Post, Poso, Central Sulawesi

Despite the calm in Poso since the signing of the Malino accord,
peace in the Central Sulawesi regency is still so fragile that it
could easily be shattered.

The 10-point Malino peace accord -- signed in South Sulawesi
on Dec. 21, 2001 after three years of sectarian conflict that
claimed more than 2,000 lives -- has yet to be fully implemented
by the Muslim and Christian camps, security authorities and the
local administration.

In a meeting between local officials and religious figures,
which Vice President Hamzah attended on Wednesday, Central
Sulawesi Governor Aminuddin Ponulele and Poso Regent Abdul Muin
Pusadan conceded that underlying tension was still evident and
threatened peace there and called on the central government to
maintain the presence of thousands of police and military
personnel in the regency.

Pusadan said his administration could not work effectively
because the task force representing the Muslim and Christian
sides had yet to work optimally to promote the Malino peace
accord and encourage them to reconcile.

Central Sulawesi Police chief Brig. Gen. Taufik Ridha said the
police in Poso had yet to disarm militiamen from both camps. He
did not know how many violent incidents had occurred before or
since the signing of the peace accord.

"The two groups in the task force don't want to investigate
the law violations that happened before and after the signing of
the Malino peace pact," he said.

There are 11,000 people still taking refuge inside and outside
the regency, but all government aid to them was stopped in
January 2003.

"It is ironic that Muslim refugees won't to go back to their
home village in predominantly Christian Tentena district and
Christian refugees won't to go back to their home village in
predominantly Muslim Poso," the chief of the local social affairs
office, Andi Azikin, said.

Andi also said that the task force should be tasked with
convincing the conflicting communities to reconcile in their own
villages and both the police and the military should gradually
pull out from the regency.

Hamzah and his entourage, who flew in three helicopters from
Poso to Tentena, some 50 kilometers south of Poso, spent only
five minutes to visit refugees in the small town, creating
discontent among locals.

The Vice President received many reports on the fragile
situation but gave no suggestions as to how to cope with hurdles
in implementing the peace accord.

B. Poradjo, 49, one of 2,000 refugees in Tentena, said he his
family feared returning home to Bategincu village in Poso
because, besides the trauma of the conflict, reconciliation had
yet to happen in his village.

"I have built three houses since the signing of the peace
agreement, but each time I built a house, it was burned down," he
told The Jakarta Post.