Top detective tasked to probe terror in Poso
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The National Police have assigned one of their top detectives to resolve the fresh terror attacks in Poso, Central Sulawesi, and help ensure stability in the conflict-prone area.
Deputy chief of detectives Insp. Gen. Gorries Mere and several senior police officers from Jakarta arrived on Monday in the provincial capital of Palu and immediately held a closed-door meeting with Central Sulawesi Police chief Brig. Gen. Oegroseno in the airport's VIP room before heading for Poso, state news agency Antara reported.
Gorries has played a key role in the crackdown on terrorist cells in the country and led the successful raid on Nov. 9 against terrorist Azahari bin Husin's hideout in Central Java. The Malaysian bomb-maker was killed during the raid conducted by the elite counterterror police force Detachment 88.
"Gorries is being assigned to Poso to enforce the law," National Police chief Gen. Sutanto said on Tuesday.
"Along with Gorries, a team of police officers (from Jakarta) will also be in Poso to ensure that all parties responsible for the mess in the town face legal sanctions," Sutanto said.
Sutanto on Monday told lawmakers that the attacks in Poso were conducted by an "organized group" that had moved to the provincial capital of Palu from Poso in a bid to reignite Christian-Muslim conflict in the region.
Human rights activists said President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono must give his political support to the police to ensure they arrested the group, which the activists said could be backed by powerful individuals in the area.
Gorries first made national news when he led a team investigating the Oct. 12, 2002, bomb attacks in Bali, which claimed 202 lives, mostly Australian tourists.
He was also responsible for investigating the Oct. 1 bombs in Bali this year that killed 23 people.
Poso was the scene of bloody conflict between Muslims and Christians between 2000 and 2001 that claimed more than 1,000 lives. It has been rocked by a series of deadly attacks during the past couple of weeks.
They began with the beheading of three Christian schoolgirls by a group of up to six assailants in October. A fourth girl survived that attack but was seriously wounded.
On Nov. 8, two men on a motorcycle shot two high school girls in the head, critically injuring them. Both are still alive.
When local police intensified security in Poso, the terror attacks moved to Palu, where a Christian couple were shot by unidentified men while walking home from a church service on Saturday. They too survived, however, a 23-year-old woman was not so lucky; killed after she was slashed by a machete-wielding motorcyclist earlier last week.
Poso Police had detained one man allegedly involved in the beheading case, only to release him on Tuesday due to a lack of evidence, Antara said.
Irfan Masaro, 23, was first arrested by local Army soldiers together with four other men last month. But after seven days in detention, all the men were released due to a lack of evidence. The Army was criticized at the time for not handing over the suspects to police.