Police believe same group undermining peace in Poso
Police believe same group undermining peace in Poso
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Police believe the perpetrators of last Saturday's bombing in the
Central Sulawesi town of Poso came from the same group that
slayed a prosecutor and killed a Protestant minister in the
provincial capital of Palu a few months earlier.
"We cannot reveal their identities yet as the investigation is
still underway. There is also a possibility that the perpetrators
came from the warring parties involved in the previous conflict
in Poso," National Police chief Da'i Bachtiar said after a
meeting with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.
Da'i, Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security
Affairs Widodo A.S., Minister of Home Affairs M. Ma'ruf and
Indonesian Military (TNI) commander Gen. Endriartono Sutarto
visited Poso on Tuesday to observe the latest developments in the
troubled town at first hand.
Sectarian disturbances affected the town between 1999 and
2001, and were virtual carbon copies of the disturbances in
Maluku, which started earlier. Peace deals signed between the
warring parties in the South Sulawesi town of Malino in December
2001 and February 2002 marked an end to the conflict.
Despite the peace agreements, Poso has continued to be plagued
by sporadic violence. The blast which killed six people and
injured dozens of others on the eve of Idul Fitri on Saturday was
the latest act in a string of violence that has disrupted the
peace in the town.
Weeks before the bombing, people in Poso were shocked by the
beheading of a man and the shooting dead of a public
transportation driver.
Da'i said the suspected bombers would be charged under the
Antiterrorism Law, which provides for a maximum sentence of
death.
Widodo said the series of violent incidents in Poso had
disrupted order in the area and were designed to terrorize the
people.
"We do not think these are separate cases. Instead, we see
that there is a possibility of systematic efforts to undermine
peace and order in Poso," Widodo said.
Following last week's bombing, police sent 100 reinforcement
personnel to Poso to back up the some 2,000 police and military
personnel sent in three months ago.