Posted on 11/09/2005 7:38:34 AM PST by Valin
JAKARTA (Reuters) - Indonesian officers have detained five people, including a former soldier, over the beheading last month of three teenage Christian girls in the volatile eastern region of Poso, security officials said on Wednesday. A spokesman for President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said the attacks, as well as a separate incident on Tuesday evening when unidentified gunmen shot and critically wounded two schoolgirls, were an attempt to reignite religious violence in the area.
The grisly beheadings, which occurred a few days before a major Muslim holiday, triggered an outcry across Indonesia as well as in Poso, a regency on Sulawesi island where sectarian fighting raged from 1998 to 2001. "The role of these five people is still being investigated by police officers," said deputy national police spokesman Soenarko Artanto, adding no suspect has been named in the case.
He refused to clarify whether the army is holding the five. The military have claimed credit for capturing four of them. "Four people have been captured by members of battalion 714 and they will be handed over to the police. Three of them are civilians while another is a former military policeman," said Major General Kohirin Suganda, the Indonesian military's chief spokesman, referring to the Poso-based infantry unit. Suganda said the capture took place a few days ago. Police have said up to six people dressed in black outfits and masks killed the teenage schoolgirls with machetes near downtown Poso and labeled the perpetrators "terrorists".
The army, playing an increased role in Indonesia's fight against terrorism, recently created anti-terrorism desks at all levels of its so-called territorial command structure, which reaches down to village level. The Vatican described the killings as "barbaric".
Most of the previous communal violence in the large but sparsely populated Poso regency, 1,500 km (930 miles) northeast of Jakarta, happened around the predominantly Muslim seaside town of Poso and the hilltop Christian town of Tentena. Muslim-Christian clashes in the Poso regency killed more than 2,000 people between 1998 and 2001, when a truce was reached. While the worst violence abated after the peace deal, there have been sporadic outbreaks since, including market bombings last May in Tentena that killed 22 people.
GUNMEN SHOOT GIRLS
In the latest attack on Tuesday, gunmen on a motorbike shot the two teenage girls -- a Muslim and a Christian -- as they were sitting together near their homes in downtown Poso. President Yudhoyono had ordered security forces to find the perpetrators, his spokesman Andi Mallarangeng said. "From the first case, we have made progress and identified the perpetrators," Mallarangeng told reporters, without elaborating on whether he meant the same four detained. "(The attacks) did not come from one religion but had people from different religions. It seems the purpose is to provoke religious emotions among Poso residents so that there will be chaos," he said.
About 85 percent of Indonesia's 220 million people are Muslim. But in some eastern parts, Christian and Muslim populations are about equal. Most Indonesian Muslims are moderates, but there has been an increasingly active militant minority in recent years.
if the hands or legs offend thee, cut them off. seems appropriate for these scum.
They want to reignite religious violence? They might get more than they bargained for.
I'll get back to you when I find the downside.
My first impulse would be to kill them, but that would be too humane.
If guilty, these five should have their arms and legs amputated, then left by the side of the road...
A holiday tradtion, like Ramadan rioting.
Can we say religious atrocities committed in the name of "Allah"?
"If guilty, these five should have their arms and legs amputated, then left by the side of the road..."
You might want to have their tongues cut out too. Because their is nothing worse the a smelly rump roast on the side of the road bitchin' about the heat.
Most Indonesian Muslims are moderates, but there has been an increasingly active militant minority in recent years.
Ordinarily, when most of a group is considered moderate, that is a good thing. However, that just doesn't seem to apply with Muslims. Instead, moderate Muslims seem to be either quietly supportive of the radical militants or too scared to publicly denounce the extremists.
As Bush once said, and once believed, either you are with us and against the terrorism, or you are against us.
Oh, the Religion of Peace strikes again. Take off their feet and one hand, let them beg for a living.
Started "before" it? More like kicked off the festivities of the Islamist holiday.
The only "moderate" Muslims are those who have run out of bullets and sharp knives. The rest are all sympathizers or collaborators.
LOL!
You mean the president isn't named Schnitzelgruber?
Death is too good for these people. For those that haven't seen the results of the absolute barbaric behaviour you can see below. WARNING - GRAPHIC VIOLENCE...these animals deserve to die painfully and oh so excruciatingly slow......muslim slime...
http://bareknucklepolitics.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=115#115
Maybe Condi can invite these suspects over for a State dinner and toast the peacful religion of Islam!
Okay, why is that guy taking a picture with his cell phone camera? That is obscene!
Muslim males in Indonesia are such nancy boys that they can only behead harmless girls? Whoa, they must be the Muslim equivalent of the "metrosexual."
And maybe you could get a clue.
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