[Kabar-indonesia] 15 arrested over attacks in Indonesia's Sulawesi

[Joyo at aol.com]

also: 15 arrested over attacks in Indonesia's Sulawesi

Indonesian police arrest Muslims, search for others in
restive Poso

JAKARTA, November 1 (AFP) -- Fifteen men accused of
cultivating ongoing unrest in religiously-divided Poso had
been detained and a list of 29 other wanted men circulated
to speed up their capture, Indonesian police said Wednesday.

Police declined to say directly whether the men were Muslim
or Christian, but said they came from groups accused in the
past of involvement in attacks against non-Muslims in
Central Sulawesi province.

"We are seeking 29 men and have already arrested another 15
men," police deputy spokesman Anton Bahrul Alam told AFP,
adding the arrests had been made from May onwards.

Alam said the men allegedly belonged to groups called Tanah
Runtuh and Kayamanya, names based on areas they came from.
The names of those arrested indicated they were Muslims.

The Tanah Runtuh group was accused of involvement in several
violent incidents in Poso since 2001, including the 2005
beheading murders of three Christian school students and
several bombings of markets and churches.

Police said the gang was also involved in the shooting of a
Christian minister in the Central Sulawesi capital of Palu
last month.

The second group was accused of robbery and inciting mob
violence by raising religious issues and spreading hatred
against the police.

Muslims in Poso, where people of the two faiths live in
roughly equal numbers, have accused the police, especially
its paramilitary unit Brimob, of favouring Christians.

The Media Indonesia daily quoted national police chief
General Sutanto as saying the list of wanted men was handed
to a prominent Muslim leader in Poso so he could assist in
tracking them down.

Poso and its surrounding district became a focal point of
communal violence between Muslims and Christians which
claimed about 1,000 lives in 2000-2001, and sporadic unrest
has continued since then.

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15 arrested over attacks in Indonesia's Sulawesi

JAKARTA, November 1 (Reuters) - Fifteen people have been
arrested over a series of attacks since 2001 mainly
targeting Christians in Indonesia's restive Central Sulawesi
province, police said on Wednesday.
The men were suspected of involvement in 13 attacks
including last year's beheading of three Christian
schoolgirls in the violence-hit region of Poso and the
murder of a female priest and a prosecutor in 2004,
provincial police spokesman Muhammad Kilat said by
telephone.

Police are still looking for another 26 people.

"There are 26 perpetrators of terror cases in Palu and Poso
who are still fugitives. They were involved in bombings,
killings and other violence over there. All of them are
civilians," Indonesian police chief Sutanto told reporters
in Jakarta.

Asked if the suspects were from the militant Jemaah Islamiah
network, blamed for bombings in Bali and Jakarta, Sutanto
said: "We are talking about individuals. Don't flaunt
(group) names like that."

Poso has been tense since the executions in September of
three Christian militants for leading a mob that killed
scores of Muslims during inter-religious violence that
gripped the region from 1998-2001.

Kilat said 20 Christians had been arrested for murdering two
Muslims and attacking a police station during protests
against the executions.

"We are not taking sides in the conflict. We don't see their
religion or their ethnic background," Kilat said.

Three years of sectarian clashes in Central Sulawesi killed
more than 2,000 people before a peace accord took effect in
late 2001. There has been sporadic violence ever since.

Around 85 percent of Indonesia's 220 million people follow
Islam, but some areas in eastern Indonesia have roughly
equal numbers of Muslim and Christians.

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Joyo Indonesia News Service
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