BREAKING NEWS: Three Christian Girls “Beheaded” in Indonesia, Vatican Outraged (WRAPUP)

injuring two others in Indonesia’s tense Poso area, and said the murders were "barbaric". 

Indonesian police forces beefed up security patrols Sunday, October 30, after six machete-wielding men reportedly attacked the 16 to 19-year-old students as they were walking to their private Christian school Saturday, October 29, on Indonesia’s eastern island of Sulawesi.

In a statement released by Vatican Radio, the Vatican also said Pope Benedict XVI "would pray for the return of peace among the people of the region." The "Holy Father entrusted entrusted Bishop Joseph Suwatan of Manado [the capital of Indonesia’s North Sulawesi province] to relate the victims families and the diocese his deepest condolences," the Vatican added.

Human rights group International Christian Concern (ICC), which investigates persecution in the region, identified the beheaded girls as Yarny Sambual, Tresa Murangke and Alfina. "Two others were attacked as well but survived. The survivors also had their throats slit [and] one [is still in a] serous condition," the group said in a statement monitored by BosNewsLife.  

The girls were reportedly attacked as they walked through a cocoa plantation near the city of Poso which has a long history of religious violence between Muslims and Christians. A government-brokered truce only partially succeeded in reducing the number of attacks against Christians in recent years, analysts said.

RELIGIOUS MOTIVE

Several media quoted police investigators as saying the heads of the girls were found some distance from the bodies. It remained unclear Sunday, October 30, who was behind the attack, but there were suggestions the killings might have had a religious motive as one of the heads was left outside a church, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) reported.

Police official Made Rai told reporters that following the murders about 1,000 police, including reinforcements from other parts of the country, were securing the remote area of Poso, with more than 300 additional officers expected to arrive on Sunday, October 30.

"We are still investigating. So far no witness has been questioned and no suspect arrested," Rai told Reuters news agency by telephone from Poso, about 1,500 kilometers (900 miles) northeast of the capital Jakarta.  One of the two students who survived the attack had given police crucial details, he said.

FEARS OF VIOLENCE

The killings raised fears of renewed religious clashes in Sulawesi and Poso in particular, where fighting between Muslims and Christians killed about 2,000 people from 1998 through 2001, when a peace deal was agreed. 

It also came amid growing concern among human rights groups about what they see as increased Muslim violence against Christians in Indonesia. Last year and 2003 already saw "a series of assassinations of pastors and Christian leaders," ICC stressed.

Also hundreds of churches, including over 30 churches this summer, have been forced to close down in Indonesia by Muslim militants and local authorities, several human rights investigators have said.

CHURCH CONSTRUCTION HALTED

In one such incident nine hard-line Islamic organizations persuaded local officials in Bekasi district of Indonesia’s West Java region to halt the construction of a church, Christian news agency Compass Direct reported.

Church officials had previously secured all government and business permits, but "Islamic displays of displeasure" emerged on September 19, when 500 people from Islamic organizations shouted anti Christian slogans and raised banners against the construction of the church building, the news agency said, citing Christian sources.

On October 3 about 200 demonstrators returned and demanded that the project be sealed off from further development, after which the church leadership apparently obliged.

SAUDI ARABIA INFLUENCE

ICC said there was growing evidence that Saudi Arabia supported the attacks against Christians in Indonesia. "Since the advent of Saudi influence in Indonesian Islam there has been wave after wave of death and destruction," the group added.

It said the same pattern is repeated in Pakistan where it claimed "it has been found that the same [Saudi] influence is being spread." Last week police looked on as rape suspect Muhammad Kashif fled a courtroom in the Pakistani town of Faisalabad, Monday, October 24, moments after his request for bail had been rejected, Compass Direct reported.

Kashif and another man are reportedly accused of raping Ribqa Masih and threatening to kill the 22-year-old Catholic and her family unless she converted to Islam, one of several recent incidents against Christian girls in the country.

SAUDI MEDIA CAMPAIGN

ICC said Saudi backed violence against Christians continues "while the Saudi’s send millions of dollars each year in the United States trying to convince [American] citizens in TV ads and through the efforts of Washington top lobbyists of their undying friendship with the people of the US."

Saudi Arabia has however strongly denied government links with militant groups and says it supports the US-led war on terrorism. The Saudi leadership also points out there have been clashes between its security forces and suspected terrorists. (With BosNewsLife Research, BosNewsLife News Center and reports from Indonesia)