Indonesian Attackers Decapitate Three Christian Schoolgirls
October 31, 2005
The Voice of the Martyrs – Michael F. Haverluck

Three female students were ambushed and beheaded while walking though a cocoa plantation in the Poso Kota subdistrict of Indonesia on their way to class at a private Christian high school, as reported by Fox News online. A fourth Christian girl was critically injured in the attack that took place in the hostile province of Central Sulawesi, approximately 1,000 miles northeast of Jakarta.

The decapitated heads of the three girls were found several miles from their bodies, according to a police spokesman.

This takes place in the most highly populated Islamic nation in the world- in a province where half are Christian and the rest are Muslim. The island of Sulawesi saw 1,000 die in a 2001-2002 religious war, when beheadings, burnings and vicious attacks were frequent. Even though Fox News states that the conflict ended with a government-mediated truce at the beginning of 2002, assassinations and bomb attacks directed at Christians have been rife since then. This includes an attack reported by Assist News Service that killed 22 people in a market located in the Christian town of Poso.

Little to nothing has been done to dissuade and prevent such attacks, which puts many Christians up in arms. To the east, nearly 9,000 have died from 1999 to 2002 on the islands of the Maluku archipelago, where volunteers from Laskar Jihad militia were reportedly supported by Indonesia’s security forces. Such backing is reported by Fox News as falling apart after the highly publicized Bali bombing in 2002 that killed over 200 people. Poso is considered the area to which many of the funded and trained militia moved.

 

Two More Schoolgirls Critically Injured in Poso, Indonesia
by Compass Direct

DUBLIN, November 9 (Compass) – Unidentified assailants yesterday shot two senior high school students in Indonesia’s Poso district, Central Sulawesi, just 10 days after the beheading of three Christian teenage girls.

Ivon, so far identified only by her first name, and Siti Nuraini, both 17 years old, were admitted to Poso Kota general hospital in critical condition last night, according to a Jakarta Post report.

The attack followed the beheading on October 29 of Theresia Morangke (15), Alfita Poliwo (17), and Yarni Sambue (15). All three were cousins.

A fourth cousin, Noviana Malewa (15), suffered deep machete wounds to her face and neck but survived the October 29 attack. She is still receiving treatment at a hospital in Palu, the provincial capital.

Malewa and the other three girls were walking to a private Christian school at around 6:30 a.m. when they were attacked. She later described the assailants as six men wearing black shirts and masks.

Her cousins’ bodies were left at the site of the attack, near a cacao plantation. Their heads were found about two hours later; one near a Pentecostal church in the village of Kasiguncu, eight miles away, and the other two near a police station five miles from Poso township, according to police spokesman Rais Adam.

The incident occurred as Muslims were preparing to celebrate Idul Fitri, the conclusion to the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.

By October’s end there were 3,500 police and army personnel stationed in Central Sulawesi, according to a Jakarta Post report on November 1. A number of high-ranking police officials had also flown to the island following the beheadings, but the heavy security presence failed to prevent a second attack in the same district.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has called on security forces to hunt down the perpetrators. Indonesians are skeptical, however, citing numerous violent crimes in Poso that remain unsolved.

Human rights activist Ibrahim Buaya echoed the frustration of many fellow Indonesians in a press release sent out immediately after the beheadings: “How many times have we heard this rhetoric and nothing happens!”

According to local human rights group Imparsial and the National Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence, there were at least 19 shooting incidents in Poso in 2002, 10 such incidents in 2003, seven in 2004, and four so far this year.

Both organizations recorded 11 murders in Poso between 2002 and 2005 and 33 bombings in the town over the same period, according to Paras Indonesia, an online news source. This figure includes the May bombing in the predominantly Christian village of Tentena that left 22 dead (updated from 21 deaths in Compass Direct’s, “Thirteen Suspects Arrested in Indonesia For Tentena Bombing,” June 6) and at least 74 injured.

Police arrested 13 suspects in connection with the Tentena bombings. For the majority of incidents, however, the perpetrators remain at large.

Expressing their lack of trust in the police and security forces, Christian leaders in the region have united to ask President Yudhoyono to personally handle the investigation into the recent murders.

Central Sulawesi has long been prone to violence. Clashes between Muslim and Christian communities between 1998 and 2001 left over 1,000 dead in the region. A peace agreement signed in December 2001 brought an end to the worst of the conflict, but sporadic attacks – most of them against Christians – have continued.

Some sources say the beheadings and shootings are politically rather than religiously motivated, while others point to the existence of several terrorist training camps in the jungles of Central Sulawesi.

As one Christian leader in Jakarta told Compass, “The situation in Poso calls for more concerned prayer. This incident shows there are some people in Poso who are still trying to re-ignite the conflict. Whoever is behind all these recent incidents, we pray that God would stop future attacks, on both Christians and Muslims.”

Terrorists Plant Two Bombs in Central Sulawesi

Yet another battalion of troops arrived in Poso on November 3, hours after a homemade bomb was found near the home of Gustaf Tajongga, head of Lambogia subdistrict in Poso regency. A police bomb squad safely defused it.

Passengers in a minibus traveling from Palu to Poso on October 27 were less fortunate. A male passenger left the minibus moments before a homemade bomb exploded, seriously injuring a 54-year-old man identified only as Murdani, who required hospital treatment for first- and second-degree burns. Hospital staff treated other passengers for minor injuries. Police said the bomb was a low-explosive device, filled with shrapnel for maximum impact.

The minibus bore the Christian name “Omega.” Minibuses carrying a maximum of 12 passengers are a common form of transportation in Central Sulawesi. They are often identified by their owners as “Christian” or “Muslim” – in the form of religious names, slogans, verses of Scripture, or stickers displaying religious symbols.