Police fail to arrest minister in Poso

Police fail to arrest minister in Poso

The Jakarta Post, Manado/Jakarta

Police in the conflict-torn town of Poso, Central Sulawesi, are
seeking the Rev. Rinaldy Damanik, who they have accused of
provoking renewed violence there, his relatives and church
activists said on Wednesday.

But the police's efforts to arrest the minister on Tuesday
ended in failure, after his supporters in the Christian area of
Tentena blocked officers.

"The police tried to enter Tentena to arrest Pak Damanik on
Tuesday, but people here went into the streets to block them,"
Edi, a relative of Damanik, told The Jakarta Post.

He said Damanik, a minister known for his hard-line on the
Poso conflict, remained in his home and would not go into hiding.

The Poso Police have declared Damanik a suspect in a spate of
recent attacks in the area, most of which have targeted
Christians.

Church activists in Manado, the capital of North Sulawesi,
confirmed the police's attempt to arrest Damanik using a
helicopter.

"A helicopter carrying security personnel, including the
Central Sulawesi Police chief and the Poso Police chief, was
ready to land in Tentena but was prevented from doing so," said
Mona Saroin-song, the coordinator of the Crisis Center of
churches in the province.

Damanik recently told the Post he was prepared to be placed
under arrest if the police could provide evidence of his
involvement in any attacks.

He and many other Christian leaders shunned the second round
of peace talks held earlier this month in the Central Sulawesi
capital of Palu. The talks were called in attempt to quell
renewed violence between Christians and Muslims in Poso.

Dominggos da Silva, a local leader who was sentenced to death
for his role in the two-year sectarian conflict in Poso, which
has left some 2,000 people dead, provided police with the names
of 16 people he said were involved in provoking the violence.

Local Christian leaders said the authorities' attempt to
arrest Damanik without first producing sufficient evidence was
"irrational".

"Why do the police want to arrest the Reverend Damanik, who is
known as a Christian leader who loves peace. He has always been
wise in dealing with the situation during the conflict," Mona
said.

Mona also questioned the police's reluctance to arrest Muslim
leaders, such as Adan Arsal, who Christians have accused of
provoking attacks.

A partial peace returned to Poso several months after Muslim
and Christian representatives, including Damanik, signed a peace
deal last December in the South Sulawesi resort of Malino.

But since June there has been a renewal of the violence, with
the identities and whereabouts of the attackers remaining a
mystery.

Victims of the recent attacks have described armed assailants
carrying automatic weapons, dressed in white or black clothes
with white sashes around their waists.

Meanwhile in Jakarta, Coordinating Minister for People's
Welfare Jusuf Kalla said on Wednesday a third round of Poso peace
talks would take place next month in Palu.

"We will organize another meeting of leaders from the warring
communities in Poso in September 2002, so they will be able to
adhere to the agreements reached at the Malino I forum," said
Kalla, who brokered the first round of talks.