Second round of Poso peace talks set for Sunday

Second round of Poso peace talks set for Sunday

Muhammad Nafik, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Signatories of a peace deal to cease the two years of sectarian
conflict in Poso, Central Sulawesi, will hold a two-day meeting
beginning on Sunday after a spate of recent attacks has shattered
the historic accord achieved last December.

The meeting will be held in the Central Sulawesi capital of
Palu and attended by local security leaders as well as Muslim and
Christian figures who signed the pact during the previous peace
talks in the hill resort of Malino, South Sulawesi.

Burhanuddin Maragau, a spokesman for the Central Sulawesi
administration, said as quoted by Antara news agency on Thursday
that the venue of the meeting was recommended by Coordinating
Minister for People's Welfare Jusuf Kalla, who brokered the
Malino agreement.

He said the planned meeting was aimed at finding measures to
end the renewed attacks and bombings that have recently rocked
Poso.

The series of violence incidents has ruined the quest for
long-lasting peace in the town, where security was restored for
several months after the peace accord.

The latest incident occurred on Sunday when at least seven
people were shot and wounded, four others went missing and two
churches and 27 houses were razed in Matako village.

The dawn attack forced around 1,200 people, mostly Christians,
from Matako and the neighboring villages of Galuga, Malei-Lage
and Tongkoyang, to flee and take refuge in the town of Tentena.

Also on Sunday, the house of Poso legislative council speaker
Murad U. Nasir was one of at least eight targets bombed. Similar
blasts also hit several other locations across the town.

On July 12, a bomb blast destroyed a bus in Poso, killing a
young woman and injuring four others, including the bus crew.

It is believed the recent attacks were launched by groups from
outside Central Sulawesi. An extremist group from Java was found
to be conducting military-style training in a remote part of Poso
during the sectarian conflict.

The spate of attacks has forced thousands of refugees to stay
put in misery at their camps across Palu.

Refugees urged on Thursday the provincial administration to
extend the deadline for them to leave their camps until late
August following the renewed violence in Poso.

"We want the repatriation deadline extended," Ibu Hartina, a
46-year-old refugee from Lage village in Poso, said.

Hartina said she was told by local repatriation registration
officials that the August deadline must be met unless the
security situation in Poso worsened.

"But in reality, attacks are breaking out again," she added.

Support for the change in the deadline came from other
refugees still stuck in camps across Palu, who said that the
escalation of violence made it impossible for them to return
home.

However, head of the Central Sulawesi social welfare office
Asikin Suyuti denied that the government had set August as the
deadline for Poso refugees to vacate their camps in Palu.

Following the peace accord, many refugees were encouraged to
return home. But now the number of those wanting to follow suit
has dropped drastically due to the renewed attacks.

Muhammad Romy, a 25-year-old volunteer at a repatriation post
in Palu, said at least 100 refugees were sent home every day
through the province's social welfare office.

At least 3,900 refugees or 780 families in Palu had registered
to join the repatriation program and most of them were sent home
to Poso.

The figure is part of some 30,000 people comprising 6,000
families who fled Poso to seek safety in Palu when the religious
conflict started to flare up in 2000.

Some 43,000 others or 10,000 families also abandoned their
villages and took refuge in safer areas across Poso, but most of
them have returned home.