Posted on 10/27/2003 12:29:10 AM PST by witnesstothefall
JAKARTA, Indonesia, -- Militants from the al-Qaida-linked Jemaah Islamiyah carried out recent bloody attacks on Christian villages in Indonesia to mark the one-year anniversary of the Bali bombings, a media report said Monday.
Indonesian police, however, denied the report.
Muslim gunmen killed 11 Christians two weeks ago in attacks in central Sulawesi province, which was wracked from 1999 to 2001 with religious violence that attracted militants from around Indonesia.
Tempo weekly news magazine reported that Jemaah Islamiyah, the shadowy group blamed for last year's Oct. 12 Bali bombings, were behind the shootings. The bombings killed 202 people, mostly foreign tourists.
"It was for the anniversary for the Bali bombs," an alleged senior member of the group told the magazine.
But police Brig. Gen. Soenarko said the killings "had nothing to do with the issue of the one year anniversary of the Bali bombing ... or Jemaah Islamiyah."
Police have arrested 14 suspects in the Sulawesi attacks, and shot and killed six others they claimed were also involved. They have so far failed to reveal a motive for the attack.
Last week, authorities said the weapons used in the killings were smuggled in from the Philippines, the southern part of which is home to a Muslim separatist insurgency and neighbors Sulawesi island.
Tempo said the alleged ringleader of the attack, who was killed by police last week, was a student of alleged Jemaah Islamiyah operative Pranata Yudha. Yudha was arrested in Jakarta in July, and accused of planning a bombing campaign.
About 90 percent of Indonesia's more than 210 million people are Muslims, making it the world's most populous Islamic country. Christians, Hindus and Buddhists make up the rest.
At least 1,000 people were killed in the Sulawesi conflict.
Human rights activists allege that fighting was largely fueled by elements of Indonesia's security forces, who either took sides in the fighting or benefited financially from it.
Jemaah Islamiyah, which allegedly has cells across Southeast Asia, is fighting for a regional Islamic state. It has been blamed for bombings in the Philippines and failed terror plots in Singapore.
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