Will Malino peace deal effectively end Poso conflict?

Will Malino peace deal effectively end Poso conflict?
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Will Malino peace deal be effective?
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Can Malino peace deal end Poso conflict?
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Can Malino Declaration bring peace to Poso?
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Can Malino Declaration return peace to Poso?

Jupriadi
The Jakarta Post
Malino

Since the Poso conflict erupted in early December 1998, warring
factions in the restive regency have signed five peace
agreements, including the Malino Declaration signed last Thursday
in Malino, a historical town some 77 kilometers northeast of
Makassar, the provincial capital of South Sulawesi.

The failure of the previous four peace agreements signed by
warring factions was due to the absence of mutual trust.

The death toll has risen from one day to the next and from one
clash to the next. So far, according to conservative data from
the Poso administration, the prolonged conflict -- which was
triggered by an argument between two youths of different
religions -- has claimed 577 lives, destroyed 7,932 houses, 27
mosques, 55 churches and one temple. A score of locals has gone
missing and thousands of others have been left injured. But
according to the Revolutionary Front for Muslim Solidarity, the
death toll has reached more than 2,000 and more than 150,000
locals have taken refuge in other regencies and provinces.

Soon after the unrest turned into to a sectarian conflict
between local Muslims and Christians, the Poso administration
held the first reconciliatory meeting among religious and tribal
leaders in Tagalu on Dec. 26, 1998. The religious and tribal
leaders held another such a meeting in Tarulemba on Dec. 28, 1998
after the Tagalu peace agreement was breached only one day after
it was signed.

South Sulawesi took the initiative to bring delegates of the
two warring factions to a reconciliatory meeting in Sayo in July
2000 following clashes in Poso town between April 16 and April
21, 2000, but the peace agreement signed by both sides was found
ineffective in halting the conflict as both sides claimed to have
been attacked. With the absence of mutual trust among warring
factions, their supporters attacked one another. The attacks
spread from village to village.

The Central Sulawesi Provincial Police launched the Sadar
Maleo Operation to disarm militias while Poso Deputy Regent Abdul
Malik Syahadat set up a team to resolve the conflict after the
Christian Bat Force, led by Fransiskus Tibo, attacked several
predominantly Muslim villages in the regency. Tibo and two others
were sentenced to death for their roles in the attacks.

South Sulawesi Deputy Governor Ruly Lamadjido employed a
cultural approach by inviting all religious and tribal leaders of
the two warring factions to a meeting in Maraso on Aug. 22, 2000,
which former president Abdurrahman Wahid attended, but that also
failed to end the conflict.

Afterward, the Wirabuana Military Command overseeing Sulawesi
launched the Love of Peace Operation by deploying until October
2001 four infantry battalions to restore security and order.

Tension had been mounting since early November when hundreds
of Laskar Jihad militiamen from Java entered the regency, while
at the same time infantry battalions were pull out. The
militiamen, who were equipped with AK-47 guns, rocket launchers
and machetes as well as bulldozers, killed hundreds of Christians
and burned down thousands of houses and other buildings in the
absence of security personnel over the last two months.

Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare Jusuf Kalla, who
represented the government to mediate between the warring
factions in the Malino meeting, has expressed hope that the
Malino Declaration will be effective in ending the conflict since
48 delegates of the two warring factions, including field
commanders of rival militias, signed it and agreed to seek a
comprehensive solution to the conflict.

"The first four agreements were not effective because those
who signed them were only religious and tribal leaders instead of
field commanders," he said.

Reynaldi Damanik, coordinator of a Protestant crisis center in
Tentena, concurred and said that the most important thing was
that both sides' leaders and field commanders signed the deal to
end the conflict and apologized to one another.

"We've learned from the previous agreements that we need to
establish mutual trust and better communication in order to
prevent the conflict from recurring," he said.

Yahya Al Hamrie, a field commander of the Muslim White Camp
militia, hailed the Malino Declaration as an opportunity to
rebuild ruined Poso.

"We all came here to make peace and rebuild Poso because we
are fed up with the conflict that has brought suffering to our
people. And this reconciliatory meeting must be permanent and the
last for all of us," he said.

He said all sides participating in the meeting had agreed to
set up a task force to follow up the declaration.

"The police and military have their main task of restoring
security and order, and law enforcers will process all past law
violations, the local administration will rehabilitate all
damaged assets and handle refugees, and field commanders will
disarm their members and dissolve their organizations," he said.