Security upped in Donggala after clash

Security upped in Donggala after clash

Irvan NR, The Jakarta Post, Palu, Central Sulawesi

Police tightened security in Donggala regency on Friday following
a bloody sectarian clash between residents of Maranatha and
Sidondo subdistricts days earlier.

At least 50 officers from the Donggala Police and the South
Sulawesi Police conducted security checks on the streets in the
two religiously divided subdistricts, some 30 kilometers from
Palu, the capital of Central Sulawesi. Maranatha subdistrict is
mainly populated by Christians, while Sidondo is predominately
Muslim. Both are in Sigi Biromaru district.

Other police officers carried out door-to-door searches
looking for homemade bombs, firearms or sharp weapons.

Several Molotov cocktails, three homemade rifles and several
machetes and knives were confiscated from local residents in the
afternoon.

"The tight security measures are aimed at preventing
provocateurs from descending again on the two subdistricts to
incite further unrest," said Donggala Police chief Adj. Sr. Comr.
Sismantoro.

One person was killed, four others were injured and at least
three houses were burned down in Wednesday's clash.

A land dispute is believed to have been the cause of the clash
in the two subdistricts, located 260 kilometers from Poso
regency, where 2,000 people were killed during two years of
sectarian clashes that lasted until 2002. Sporadic attacks by
unknown assailants still occur in Poso despite a peace accord
being signed in February 2002.

Others said the clash was due to revenge dating back to
fighting between Maranatha residents and rivals from Kotapulu,
another mainly Muslim subdistrict, in 2002, in which two houses
were set alight.

The situation was still tense on Friday in Maranatha and
Sidondo, as people in both subdistricts started to form small
groups of between 10 to 15 people to maintain security. Some
gathered in front of their houses while others guarded places of
worship and subdistrict halls.

Some women and children have taken refuge in safer places in
case further fighting breaks out.

The dead victim of the clash, Samuel Malasingi, was buried on
Friday. Top officials in Central Sulawesi province attended a
service for him in Rarantekala Church in Donggala.

They were Donggala Achmad deputy regent Abdul Rauf, Adj. Sr.
Comr. Sismantoro and Central Sulawesi Governor Aminuddin
Ponulele.

Central Sulawesi provincial administration spokesman
Baharuddin Maragau has called on people to practice restraint
after the clash.

"The dispute over land ownership is being discussed at the
Donggala provincial council and by the Central Sulawesi
government, and hopefully, an outcome will be declared soon," he
said without going into detail.