'Poso violence beyond control'

Fabiola Desy Unidjaja and Tasman Banto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta/Palu

Security conditions in restive Central Sulawesi are getting out of control due to the presence of an "unidentified group" which continues stir renewed violence, according to a police officer.

Poso Police chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Unggung Cahyono said on Saturday that the group had a vast operation area around the regency and was well-organized.

"It is difficult for us to minimize the movement of the group, resulting in incidents which continue throughout the regency," Unggung told The Jakarta Post by phone.

He further said that due to a lack of personnel, the police could not identify the group or their motives as they tended to "hit and run" in their actions.

"We think these continuing incidents were committed by the same group of people who attacked two villages last week," the officer said.

Central Sulawesi Police Chief Brig. Gen. Zainal Abidin agreed with Unggung, saying that a well-trained and well-organized group were behind the series of attacks, mostly against Christians.

Speaking in the provincial capital of Palu, he said that the situation in Poso was tense because of the incidents.

The latest violence occurred on Thursday evening, when an Italian tourist and several local civilians were murdered after their bus was ambushed by armed men near Mayoa village, some 200 kilometers south of Poso.

It was the fourth such random attack on a innocent civilians in a passenger bus since Muslim and Christian leaders signed the Malino peace accord to end nearly three years of conflict in December 2001.

On Wednesday, the Poso Community Communication Forum (FKMTP) reported attacks on the villages of Matako and Malito by a group of armed men, who burned down dozens of houses and left several people wounded a few days earlier.

Compounded by threats on another two villages, the forum asked the central government to launch another operation to restore order in the regency.

All the incidents came ahead of the follow-up dialog to evaluate the implementation of the Malino peace agreement scheduled for Sunday.

Coordinating Minister for Social Welfare Yusuf Kalla, the man behind the peace talks, and National Police Chief Gen. Da'i Bachtiar were scheduled to attend the dialog.

Kalla said in Jakarta that the government vowed to capture the perpetrators of the violence in Poso and had deployed a battalion of troops to the restive town.

Unggung said that ever since the central government decided to reduce the number of the security personnel in Poso, activities of the unidentified armed group increased.

"However, I cannot say whether the continuing attacks are related to the planned dialog," he said.

The attacks may threaten the resumption of the dialog as signatories of the Malino agreement from Christian community stated their rejection to attend because of the worsening security condition.

A Christian leader, Sawerigading Pelima, said it would be useless to hold the meeting if security authorities could not do anything to deal with the armed group.

"We do not see the significance of the dialog because the security conditions in Poso remain poor," Pelima said as quoted by Antara.