plunging into renewed religious strife, a major human rights group said Wednesday, January 24.
Washington-DC based International Christian Concern (ICC) with website www.persecution.org
reported that the explosive was discovered January 20 near the front gate of the church.
Poso’s Chief of Police, Rudy Sufahriadi reportedly said that “It is good that the bomb was found before Sunday, when the Church would be full with Christian people worshipping and praying."
The discovery came shortly after another bomb attack against a church in Poso, the main port and transportation hub for the northeastern coast of Central Sulawesi. "No one was injured in the blast," at Poso’s Ecclesia Church, "but it appears to be a warning," ICC said in a statement obtained by BosNewsLife.
BLOODBATH FEARS
The group warned that the attacks have added to fears "that the region might devolve again into the bloodbath of the late ‘90s and early 2000s."
Several human rights groups have said that Poso has become a hotbed for Indonesia’s Islamist militants, apparently with the backing from at least some local government and police forces.
ICC noted that already in the last three years there have been "numerous pastor assassinations, bombings, attacks on churches, and even the horrendous decapitation of three Christian schoolgirls in November 2005."
Indonesian forces reportedly clashed with Islamist militants on Monday, January 22, when they raided a suspected hideout. At least 11 radicals were killed, along with one policeman, investigators said.
MILITANTS DETAINED
Police reportedly detained 25 suspected militants and seized ammunition and bombs from a hideout in the Tanah Runtuh area of Poso. "In the aftermath of these attacks Jakarta, has sent in an additional 200 police, which is welcome news," ICC said.
The group quoted its contact in Poso as saying that the area looks once again "like a war zone," because of apparent clashes between security forces and Muslim militants. This week police apparently seized almost a dozen of M16 assult rifles and other weapons from the Muslim group along with thousands of rounds of ammunition, ICC investigators said.
ICC’s President Jeff King said his group had urged the government of Indonesia "to deal with the situation in Poso with utmost seriousness." Kind warned that, "if radical Islamist elements are not rooted out they will succeed in returning the area to full scale war. The only way the radicals can be permanently routed is if their collaborators in the police and military are exposed and prosecuted.”
Indonesia is the world’s most populous Muslim nation of over 245 million people. Christians comprise just eight percent of the population, according to United State Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) estimates. (With reports from Indonesia).
