Posted on 01/01/2002 4:12:07 AM PST by KQQL
The world's most populous Muslim nation began the New Year with four churches bombed and one person dead from a grenade blast, after revellers elsewhere in Indonesia welcomed in 2002 with fireworks and trumpets.
Christian, Adventist and Pentecostal churches in the Central Sulawesi capital of Palu were rocked by simultaneous blasts as midnight struck, shattering church windows and injuring one person, deputy national police spokesman Edward Aritonang told AFP.
"The explosion was so huge it shook our shop 20 meters away," a retailer near the Adventist church told the state Antara newsagency.
In the light of day a fourth bomb exploded as worshippers gathered to celebrate New Year's Day mass at another Pentecostal church at 9:30 am, injuring two policemen who were inspecting the parcel it was wrapped in, Aritonang said.
Palu Chief Brigadier Paliling (eds: one name) told AFP by phone that one of the officers was being treated in hospital.
The blasts pierce a shaky calm that had settled over Palu since December 20 when warring Christian and Muslim communities signed a peace accord, following attacks by militant Muslim fighters on Christian villages in November that killed nine and sent thousands fleeing through the forests.
The attacks had revived simmering sectarian tensions which have seen sporadic fighting and the deaths of some 1,000 people since mid-2000.
Aritonang said the situation in Palu Tuesday was "now under control".
In Jakarta a grenade exploded in front of a restaurant in the city's southern entertainment district at 3:30 am (2030 GMT Monday), blowing off a man's hand and killing him, Aritonang said.
The victim, Hasballah, 21, was rushed to Jakarta's Pertamina hospital with hand and leg injuries, but died three hours later, Aritonang said.
Jakarta police chief Inspector General Makbul Padmanagara said the victim and his companion were suspected responsible for the grenade, based on eyewitness accounts.
One eyewitness said the pair had arrived on the scene asking directions to a toilet. Shortly after, the grenade exploded, killing Hasbullah, and sending his companion fleeing, Padmanagara was reported as saying by Antara.
Police were searching for the escaped companion, he said.
Padmanagara said that overall the revelry in Jakarta had proceeded more calmly than in previous years, which had been marred by firecracker-related injuries and car accidents.
"The security we provided went smoothly and the people suported our efforts," he told journalists.
Revellers crammed the capital's main thoroughfare letting off officially-banned fireworks and blowing trumpets, under the gaze of 21,000 police and 7,000 soldiers deployed for security.
Traffic ground to a halt in the city center as family crowds filled the central roundabout to watch fireworks over the international hotels that surround the landmark Welcome Monument in the middle of the roundabout.
President Megawati Sukarnoputri in a televised end-of-year speech on Monday night proclaimed she had achieved political stability in the conflict-plagued nation, but conceded that many of the troubles she inherited when she took power in July still persisted.
"Not all problems have been settled. We still have to face a lot more problems," Antara quoted her as saying.
Megawati also urged Indonesians to end their almost daily street protests.
"We should stop using 'street democracy' as we often see that it hurts the national interests and could be mistakenly used by certain groups to disrupt public interests," she was quoted as saying by the Jakarta Post online.
Guess the Muslims didn't get the memo............
Thanks- copied & saved.
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