Police fish for church minister, Christians alleged set up
Police fish for church minister, Christians alleged set up
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The Central Sulawesi Provincial Police insisted that they would
immediately interrogate church minister Rev. Rinaldy Damanik who
was declared a suspect for alleged possession of guns and
ammunition without a permit.
Brig. Gen. Zainal Abidin, chief of the provincial police, said
here on Saturday that his office would deliver a second summons
to the suspect to replace the previous letter which mistyped his
identity.
"Rev. Damanik turned down the first summons because we had the
name on it wrong. We will send a second one with the right name,"
he was quoted by Antara as saying while warning that the suspect
would be taken by force should he reject the summons.
Damanik was declared a suspect following the seizure of 14
guns and ammunition from a car in which he was a passenger, while
evacuating Christian villagers who were being massacred by Muslim
extremists in the bloody assault on Mayumba Village in Morowali
regency on Aug. 15.
Damanik was not arrested when the weapons were first alleged
to have been discovered because he was accompanied by hundreds of
his supporters.
The Institution of Christian Churches in Central Sulawesi
(GKST) released an official statement in connection with the
police's announcement about the minister's status in the case,
which categorically denied the reverend's involvement.
It said that the minister was asked by villagers in Mayumba
and Peleru to evacuate them to safer areas following the bloody
attack where many people were killed and many houses were burned
down and security authorities had yet to investigate that
incident, let alone identify who was responsible.
The second reason, the statement said, was that not even one
of the hundreds of people around, while they were in a convoy of
vehicles, saw any guns that belonged to the minister, but other
witnesses confirmed that some weapons were planted in the car
during the police raid, which was not conducted in compliance
with official procedures.
GKST also called on all sides, including law enforcers, to
respect the principles of the legal system to uphold the
supremacy of law in handling the case.
Damanik is one of the Christian delegates who signed the Poso
peace agreement in Malino, South Sulawesi, in December, 2001, and
also chairman of the crisis center assigned to handle conflict
victims and publicize the peace deal among conflicting factions'
supporters.
In other related developments, Gymnastiar, a Muslim leader,
and Rev. Lambe, secretary of the Indonesian Churches Communion
(PGI) were scheduled to visit Poso on Sept. 13, 2002, to help
calm down the increasingly volatile situation.
Farid Husain, a deputy of the coordinating minister for
people's welfares, said the two religious figures were sent to
help speed up the peace process in the conflict-torn regency.
"The central government hopes the two religious leaders' visit
will create a fresh situation after the regency has been torn by
a sectarian conflict for four years," he said.
The conflict erupted in December, 1998 and has claimed more
than 2,000 lives and caused billions of rupiah in material
losses.
Gymnastiar is scheduled to visit predominantly Muslim Poso
town while Lambe will visit predominantly Christian Tentena, some
50 kilometers south of Poso.
The government has redeployed thousands of security personnel
both from the police and the military, but sporadic attacks on
Christian villages continue and the police still claim to be
completely unaware of who was behind the recent series of
bombings and killings.
Some 200 security personnel from the Papua Provincial Police
arrived in Poso on Saturday to reinforce thousands of police and
military personnel already stationed in the regency.
Most recently, a bus bombing occurred in the regency only a
day after the second round of the Poso meeting attended by
military and police officials, ended in Palu, capital of Central
Sulawesi early last month.