Poso gradually returns to normal

Tiarma Siboro, The Jakarta Post, Poso

The situation in the Central Sulawesi regency of Poso is gradually returning to normal, following the recent signing of the Malino Declaration to end the wearing three-year war that has claimed more than 2,000 lives.

A majority of both local Muslims and Christians have resumed their daily activities, public services are functioning again, school-age children are attending classes in damaged school buildings and most shops and traditional markets in Poso are back to normal.

"We want to live together with our Muslim brethren as we did before but we must be realistic that we need more time to return to normality as many strangers are still occupying our houses," said Yustino, a refugee from Tentena, some 40 kilometers south of the town.

Numerous government officers and informal and religious leaders were observed visiting villages and remote ares to publicize the Malino declaration while calling on locals to return to their normal lives.

Some locals who had already left refuge camps to celebrate Idul Fitri and Christmas recently, have begun rehabilitating their houses damaged in the most recent series of clashes last month.

Poso Regent Muin Pusadan said that the local administration would carry out a rehabilitation project to repair all infrastructure damaged during the conflict and help locals to rebuild their houses.

The local authorities have confiscated thousands of firearms that were voluntarily surrendered by the two warring factions and are persuading more than 100,000 Poso refugees living in numerous camps both inside and outside the regency to return.

Suburiyah, a Muslim refugee in Tokorondo village and one who lost her teenage child in the recent conflict, said that she felt traumatized when the unidentified attackers killed her child.

"I don't think I would have the courage to go home if the security authorities couldn't give us a guarantee that we would be safe there," Suburiyah, who currently lives with her husband and six children, said.

In observing the gradual restoration of order and security in Poso, Coordinating Minister of People's Welfare Jusuf Kalla and National Police chief Da'i Bachtiar said, in separate occasions on Wednesday, that they were optimistic of permanent and genuine peace in the restive regency.

The two, along with Minister of Resettlement and Regional Infrastructure Soenarno and Minister of Social Affairs Bachtiar Chamsyah, were in Poso on Tuesday to hand over Rp 37 billion in financial assistance to help rehabilitate all damaged infrastructure within the regency.

Upon Jusuf Kala's arrival in Palu from Poso on Wednesday during the truce to socialize the Malino Declaration, militias of the two warring factions and their supporters surrendered a total of more than 17,000 conventional and hand-made firearms to the local security authorities.

"This shows the two rival sides are committed to complying with the Malino Declaration in order to end the prolonged conflict," Jusuf Kala said, citing that the two sides' militias were estimated still to possess around 20,000 guns and explosives.

He said a majority of Poso Muslims and Christians had accepted the peace deal signed in Malino and under such conditions it would be easier for security personnel to disarm all militiamen in the coming month.

Da'i said that in accordance with the peace agreement, the local police would continue to process all those who were involved in law violations in the past, including the bombing of four churches in Palu on New Year's eve and the foiled shipments of guns to the regency.

"The police will continue to carry out operations to raid any possible illegal supplies of firearms or explosives to the regency that could help revive the sectarian conflict," he said.

In Makassar, South Sulawesi, Minister Kalla said that in line with the gradually improving situation in Poso, the central government had disbursed Rp 37 billion to help rehabilitate all infrastructure and houses damaged during the conflict over the last three years.

"The government will provide Rp 2 million for each person who was killed during the conflict and Rp 5 million for each family whose house was burned down or damaged and financial assistance for refugees to go back to their home village," he said.

He said the financial assistance was granted to help create a peaceful situation in the regency and encourage all locals to accept the reconciliation.

"The government has an obligation to help return Poso to normal as it was in the past," he said.