Poso gradually returns to normal

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.