Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Jakarta (Agenzia Fides) - the recent earthquake in Sulawesi (east Indonesia) is not the greatest concern, although more than 100 people are reported dead or missing and the island was already devastated by recent landslides and floods and thousands of homeless people receive emergency aid mainly in the most affected area the central province of the island.
Fides sources say the greatest fear is a new outbreak of clashes between the local Christians and Muslim communities after a period of relative calm and a return to normality had almost been achieved.
Protest and malcontent was caused by a recent court sentence: 17 Christians found guilty of being involved in the death of two Muslims in September last were given various years of prison, some 14 years. The episode took place in Poso, in the western part of the Island. The two men were killed as an act of retaliation after the execution of three Catholics, Tibo and his companions, the only ones who paid in person for violent Muslim/Christian clashes in the period 1999-2001. Poso has always been a hot spot: unlike the rest of Indonesia where Muslims are the overwhelming majority, in Poso Christians represent 50% of the population. In the clashes at least 2,000 people were killed. In 2001 a fragile peace agreement was signed by the two communities.
Isolated episode of violence, attacks more or less serious, sudden protests of militants are reported now and then, a sign that the area is not fully at peace, and that fundamentalist factions reject civil harmony. Two serious cases have kept tension high: three Christian girls decapitated in October 2005 by Muslim rioters; the death sentence and execution of Tibo, Fabianus and Domingus. (PA) (Agenzia Fides 27/7/2006 righe 28 parole 286)
