market in a Christian town in eastern Indonesia in an attack that already raised fears of massive religious bloodshed in the troubled region. The explosions, in which many more were injured, left a trail of blood and destruction in the lakeside town of Tentena, on the eastern island of Sulawesi, part of an area where three years of Muslim-Christian clashes killed up to 2,000 people until a peace deal was agreed in late 2001, Reuters news agency reported.
Periodic unrest has flared since, but Saturday morning’s attack was among the worst in Tentena, about 60 kilometers (38 miles) south of the coastal town of Poso
Tensions rose after the bombings, with hundreds of residents converging on the local hospital and destroying an outdoor market, demanding police find the killers, news reports said. The first explosion occurred in the center of Tentena, and the Voice of America (VOA) network quoted authorities as saying that a second blast, 15 minutes later, targeted those who had been attracted by the first explosion.
PREVIOUS ATTACK
The Tentena bombings reportedly followed an attack by gunmen on a police post in the Moluccas islands further to the east that killed five police this month. The Moluccas islands, 2,300 kilometers (about 1370 miles) east of Jakarta, were also the scene of vicious communal fighting between Muslims and Christians from 1999 to 2002 that left more than 5,000 dead before a peace deal was reached in 2002.
There have been no claims of responsibility for the bombings in Tentena. Indonesia has the world’s largest Muslim population, but the area on the island of Sulawesi where Saturday’s explosions took place is about evenly divided between Muslims and Christians, reporters in the area said.
"I was standing in front of a store when suddenly there was an explosion. I lost consciousness," said one victim, Jonathan, from his hospital bed after being wounded by shrapnel, Reuters reported. In media statements church officials condemned the violence. "The people behind this do not want Poso to be safe," priest Renaldi Damanik reportedly said.
SUSPICIOUS PACKAGE
Media quoted police as saying that one suspicious package was found nearby after the explosions, but reportedly added it was not a bomb.
The two explosions follow heightened warnings from Western governments about terrorist attacks in the world’s most populous Muslim nation, although few foreigners venture to the Poso region because of its history of bloodshed, Reuters said. On Thursday, May 26, the United States reportedly closed all its four diplomatic missions in Indonesia because of a security threat.
Attacks against Western targets and blamed on Jemaah Islamiah include blasts at Bali nightclubs in October 2002 that killed 202 people, mostly foreigners, and one last September outside the Australian embassy in Jakarta that killed 10, according news reports. (With Stefan J. Bos, BosNewsLIfe Research and reports from the region).
