Police bust gun shipment headed for Poso

Police bust gun shipment headed for Poso

Jupriadi, The Jakarta Post, Makassar

City police in Makassar seized a shipment of two guns bound for
nearby Poso on Wednesday, thwarting an apparent attempt to
scuttle the Malino peace agreement signed by the Central Sulawesi
regency's warring factions in December.

The two U.S.-made guns, engraved with the serial numbers 77190
Sera and 2196 Savage, were found in a package at the office of a
cargo express company, Wislim Jaya Ekspres, located at Jl.
Monginsidi Baru No. 3 in the city.

The package, which police confiscated, said Comr. Rudy
Sudradjat, chief of the City Police's detective unit, also
contained equipment with which to make handmade firearms and
grenades, along with motorcycle spare parts.

The package was listed as being sent by Jein Kadjo in Makassar
to an unlisted address in Poso.

"We are still chasing the sender," he said, while police
investigators question two staff members of the cargo company.

City police have also confiscated two automatic weapons which
were discovered in mid-December after a group of unidentified men
tried to send them to Poso.

Police were helped in no small part by "local people who are
committed to creating a peaceful and secure situation in the
regency," said Sudrajat.

The police, he added, would continue to block the supply of
illegal guns and explosives to Poso to implement the peace
agreement in the conflict-torn regency.

Meanwhile, the situation in Poso is gradually returning to
normal two weeks after the signing of the Malino declaration,
according to Madewa, an independent organization set up by the
local chapter of the Indonesian Journalists' Association (AJI) to
witness the agreement's implementation.

Over the last ten days, in a further sign that peace is taking
hold, traditional markets in Poso have been crowded by people
from different religious communities and ethnicities that had
previously experienced mutual hostility, while transportation to
and from Poso has returned into normal.

During the Idul Fitri holidays, Christians came down to
streets to greet Muslim travelers and during Christmas, Muslims
visited their Christian neighbors to convey their Christmas
greeting.

Local officials in Poso, including the provincial police
chief, also held a post-Idul Fitri gathering in the presence of
religious and informal leaders at the Poso regent's residence
and, conversely, a Christmas gathering in the predominantly
Christian Tentena.

Ahead of the deadline set by the warring factions to surrender
their weapons, the Muslim group voluntarily handed down around
500 handmade firearms to local security authorities.

Besides an end the prolonged conflict, warring factions have
also agreed to offer a one-month-long amnesty period -- between
Jan. 7 and Feb. 6, 2002 -- during which all militias in Poso and
their supporters must surrender their guns and ammunition to
local police.

According to Madewa, the socialization of the Malino
declaration will be hindered because the two factions have yet to
form a task force to make a coordination.

"The campaign of the Malino Declaration should be conducted by
a joint task force from the two conflicting camps to entrust both
Poso Muslims and Christians," he said.