Bomb blasts in Indonesian Christian town kill 21 (TROP Alert)

TENTENA, Indonesia (Reuters) - Two bombs ripped through a busy market in a Christian town in eastern Indonesia on Saturday, killing up to 21 people in an attack likely to raise fears sectarian bloodshed could again break out in the region.

The explosions left a trail of blood and destruction in the lakeside town of Tentena, on the eastern island of Sulawesi, part of an area where three years of Muslim-Christian clashes killed 2,000 people until a peace deal was agreed in late 2001.

Periodic unrest has flared since, but Saturday morning's attack was among the worst. Tensions rose after the bombings, with hundreds of residents converging on the local hospital and destroyed outdoor market, demanding police find the killers.

The official Antara news agency, quoting local government officials, said the death toll was 21. Police earlier told Reuters it was 19.

A local hospital official said 32 people were wounded, many seriously. One toddler was among the dead, officials said.

Crowds of people banged their hands on the local police chief's car when he arrived on the scene soon after the attacks, but there was no violence.

"The situation is getting tense," Andi Asikin, the mayor of Poso town not far from Tentena, told El Shinta radio station.

"People are upset because their families are victims. Crowds of people who are relatives of the victims are condemning the act. They are demanding officials hunt the perpetrators."

Police on the scene said the bombs comprised high explosives, adding that the blasts could be heard 12 km (7 miles) away. The second explosion came 15 minutes after the first, and was the bigger of the two, residents said.

The roofs of shops near the market were torn off and food and goods scattered over a wide area in Tentena, 1,500 km (900 miles) northeast of Jakarta. Windows in a police station were blown out.

Much of the past Sulawesi violence focused on nearby Poso in a conflict that drew Muslim militants from groups such as the al Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiah, a Southeast Asian network blamed for numerous bomb attacks across Indonesia.

Some 85 percent of Indonesia's 220 million people are Muslim. But in some eastern parts, Christian and Muslim populations are about equal in size.

Picturesque Tentena, famed for its churches and surrounded by clove-covered hills, lies 40 km (25 miles) to the south of Poso. Police were checking vehicles leaving Tentena, while security had been tightened. Most shops had closed.

"I was standing in front of a store when suddenly there was an explosion. I lost consciousness," said one victim, Jonathan, from his hospital bed after being wounded by shrapnel.

"The people behind this do not want Poso to be safe," said priest Renaldi Damanik.

Police said one suspicious package was found nearby after the explosions, but added it was not a bomb.

The two explosions follow heightened warnings from Western governments about terrorist attacks in the world's most populous Muslim nation, although few foreigners venture to the Poso region because of its history of bloodshed.

On Thursday, the United States closed all its four diplomatic missions in Indonesia because of a security threat.

Attacks against Western targets and blamed on Jemaah Islamiah include blasts at Bali nightclubs in October 2002 that killed 202 people, mostly foreigners, and one last September outside the Australian embassy in Jakarta that killed 10.

The Tentena bombings follow an attack by gunmen on a police post in the Moluccas islands further to the east that killed five police this month.

The Moluccas islands, 2,300 km (1,440 miles) east of Jakarta, were also the scene of vicious communal fighting between Muslims and Christians from 1999 to 2002 that left more than 5,000 dead. A peace agreement was reached there in early 2002.

Your conclusions are wrong, although I won't deny that there is a serious problem in Indonesia, or that so far gevernment efforts to stop the violence have been inadequate.

You'll note from the article the statistic that Indonesia is 85% Muslim. That statistic is basically a state sanctioned lie. It is an artifact of a deal struck in 1947 between then nationalist leader Sukarno and Islamists of the time to include followers of Kejawen as followers of Islam, although that is not strictly true.

Had the 60 million Kejawen followers been named as Kejawen, as they are, Islam would not have been the majority religion in Indonesia. Nor would it be today. In fact the influence if Islam in Indonesia is grandly overstated, and the influence of Indonesias traditional religions are far understated.

But you are right in you assessment that the Islamists are gaining ground. This is not a situation that will persist longer term.

"But you are right in you assessment that the Islamists are gaining ground. This is not a situation that will persist longer term."

I hope you are right but the government continues to make concessions to Islamists who are increasingly demanding elements of sharia law be introduced into the legal code.

The Muslim slaughter of Christians and Buddists in Idonesia has been going on for decades now, but largely ignored by MSM.
Thousands are killed eary year by fundamentalists, thousands of churches have been burned down, men slaughtered, women raped and given 'clitorectomies' with blunt kitchen knives.
In 1981 this islamic uprizing was simply called "ethnic clashes" by MSM, and largely ignored since.
Much of this Tsunami aid money will end up being used to continue this slaughter no doubt.

For a few months in 1984, I was travelling to Java, Bali, Lombok, Sumatra, Kalimantan (Borneo), Sulawesi (Celebes) and I have to say it's an interesting group of islands with different type of cultures. One thing though that I see quite different nowadays is their outfits. At that time when I was in Java, I didn't see many islamic schools (maddrasahs) compared to todays, and not many women, female students, wearing hijabs walking on the streets or at the markets. Not in the cities and not in villages. Yes, I saw them wore their white prayer outfits in the mosques and when they prayed at home. However, nowadays, so many young female students, women at the markets, they wear hijabs everywhere. I know there are many people there believe in kejawen in Java (Jawa), however islamic extremism is there and growing fast, fueled by their imam and clerics with hatred for the US and Israel (now think of this, what reason is there for these indonesians to hate israel? other than islam solidarity, is there any historical relation between indonesia and israel? ; and hatred for the US but welcomed US help and money; maybe they need to beg more to their islamic brotherhood, ask Saudi Arabia for example). I reckon I won't go back to Indonesia soon, if I want to see the tropics, I go somewhere else.

Interrogators at the detention center are not allowed to touch the Quran, it can only be handled by Muslim Chaplains and even then the Chaplains must wear gloves.

The gloves must be placed on the hands in the presence of the detainee so there is no possibility that infidel hands, (American) touch their book.

Maybe the problem is Islam

Any group of people that will try to kill you because you touched a book with your bare hands ought to be outlawed, not tolerated.

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