Posted on 09/22/2006 5:23:40 AM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
Executions of 3 Christian militants sparks violence in Indonesia
By Associated Press
Friday, September 22, 2006 - Updated: 07:45 AM EST
PALU, Indonesia - Christian mobs torched cars, blockaded roads and looted Muslim-owned shops in violence touched off by Friday’s executions of three Roman Catholics convicted of instigating attacks on Muslims.
Some 200 inmates escaped after mobs assaulted a jail in the town of Atambua, sending guards fleeing to the nearby jungle. By midday only 20 had been recaptured, deputy national police chief Lt. Gen. Adang Dorodjatun said, calling on the others to turn themselves in.
And on the island of Flores, the executed men’s birthplace, machete-wielding mobs ran through the streets Friday, sending women and children running in panic, police and witnesses said.
Police and media reports said at least five people were hurt, including a prosecutor who was hospitalized with stab wounds.
Vice President Jusuf Kalla appealed for calm, saying the deaths of the three men had nothing to do with religion.
“It’s a matter of law,” he told reporters in the capital Jakarta. “If the people resent the law, we are doomed.”
Fabianus Tibo, 60, Marinus Riwu, 48, and Dominggus da Silva, 42, were found guilty of leading a Christian militia that launched a series of attacks on Muslims in May 2000 that left at least 70 people dead.
Human rights workers say the men’s 2001 trial was a sham, and that while it was possible the men took part in some of the violence, they almost certainly were not the leaders.
The men were taken before the firing squad at 12:15 a.m. (2:15 p.m. EDT Thursday), said a senior police officer who asked not to be identified because he was not authorized to speak to the media. Family members later said they had received confirmation of the deaths.
Palu, where the executions took place, was largely calm, with thousands of police standing on street corners and guarding markets and churches. But violence flared in the Sulawesi villages of Tentena and Lage, where hundreds of Christians rampaged after learning of the deaths.
Thousands also rallied in the eastern province of East Nusatenggara, home to many Roman Catholics, blockading roads and setting fire to government buildings, including a courthouse and a prosecutor’s office.
Some 200 prisoners escaped in the town of Atambua, and only 20 had been recaptured by mid-afternoon, deputy national police chief Lt. Gen. Adang Dorodjatun said, calling on the others to turn themselves in.
In carrying out the death sentence, Indonesia ignored an appeal last month by Pope Benedict XVI to spare the men. A Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, told the Italian news agency ANSA that news of the execution “was very sad and painful.”
The European Union also criticized the executions; capital punishment is banned in the 25-member bloc.
“The presidency of the European Union has learned with disappointment that despite numerous expressions of concern by the EU to the Indonesian authorities, Indonesia has carried out executions in Central Sulawesi,” said a statement issued Friday by Finland, which currently holds the EU presidency.
The case against the three had heightened tensions in the world’s most populous Muslim nation and raised questions about the role religion played in punishing those allegedly behind the violence that swept Sulawesi province from 1998 to 2002, killing more than 1,000 people of both religions. Only a handful of Muslims were convicted, all for 15 years in prison or less.
The men told relatives and a priest during final prayers at their jail Thursday that they were innocent but ready to die.
Tibo’s son, Robert, told Christian followers early Friday that his father “begged us not to be angry, not to seek revenge.”
“He asked us to forgive those who did this to him. ’God blesses all of us,’ he said.
The executions came amid an outcry in many Muslim nations about comments made by the pope on Islam. The pontiff last week cited the words of a Byzantine emperor who characterized some of the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad as “evil and inhuman.” He has since said he was “deeply sorry” about the reactions to his remarks and that they did not reflect his own opinions.
The condemned men had said they hoped investigations into the clashes would continue, noting that they had provided authorities with the names of 16 Christians who allegedly provoked some of the worst bloodshed.
The government says its probe is complete.
“It’s useless for me to say anything now,” said Tibo’s son early Friday. “The government never listened to him when he was alive. They ignored everything.”
Human rights activists said Muslim hardliners gathered at the court during the hearings, likely intimidating judges, prosecutors, defense attorneys and witnesses.
“The men’s lawyers received death threats, including a bomb planted at one lawyer’s house and demonstrators armed with stones outside the courthouse demanded that the three be sentenced to death,” said Isabelle Cartron of London-based Amnesty International.
Indonesia is a secular nation with the world’s largest number of Muslims, about 190 million. In Sulawesi and several other eastern regions, Christian and Muslim populations are roughly equal.
Though violence in Sulawesi largely ended with the signing of a peace deal in 2002, there have been isolated incidents of violence since then, most blamed on Islamic militants.
Let's see... Incite to kill 200 in Bali bombings, get 20 months R&R. "Incite" violence, get the firing squad. Seems about fair.
Welcome to the type of justice Europe will get when their arab masters are in charge.
The LORD has reserved vengance for Himself and He is quite capable of exacting it. For the rest of us, we are to forgive as we wish to be forgiven.
If we do otherwise, we are not Christians, no matter what we may do on Sunday morning.
Shalom.
So you think another tidal wave is coming?
Anyone who incites violence, torches cars and loots shops is very likely a CINO. One may wear the team uniform and yet play for the opposition. It is a typical tactic and works rather well, particularly with those too ignorant of true Christianity to know the difference.
What He doesn't judge in this life, He judges in the next. There are many examples in history where the good seem to suffer and the wicked seem to prosper. It is frustrating, but He never promised that we would see justice done.
When/if another tidal wave comes, Christians should return to help.
Shalom.
First use of the term CINO I've seen for Christians! I guess if that's a saving grace, we can just call terrorists MINOs, then, right?
Or is Rosie on to something after all?
<< If we do otherwise, we are not Christians, no matter what we may do on Sunday morning. >>
Should not, given that He has also reserved judgment unto Himself, read, "If I do otherwise, I (am) not Christian, no matter what I may do on Sunday morning?"
Blessings - Brian
Christians need to rise up. Everywhere. Look at what just happened in Thailand, a wonderful country, if it weren't for the muslims there. Now, they took power.
This is a war, and we are making it harder by letting the enemy make a huge start unopposed.
Only in the minds of people who hate God or religion.
The teachings of Jesus in the Bible in no way condone that kind of behavior, whereas mohammed dictates it.
Of course, there are CINOs. ANYBODY can say they're a Christian, but Jesus makes it very clear that only those who do His work are His true followers. CINOS have got to be one of Satan's most effective tools in turning people from God and faith in Jesus.
Exactly - we should be the rampaging flag burning looneys ! Ok that wouldn't be noticed in Idaho, but elsewhere it sure made a difference in daily life ;-)
Not if you have activist judges, you're not! /s
<< Look at what just happened in Thailand, a wonderful country, if it weren't for the muslims there. Now, they took power. >>
I'm looking at Thailand from fairly close up, considering I am sitting in it. And muslims no more "took power" here than they will ever fly to the moon!
There are muslim terrorists in the south and the general who headed up the otherwise all-Buddhist coup committee is nominally a follower of that dreadful ideology-posing-as-a-faith. But this is still a freedom loving and celebrating, wonderful (Predominately Buddhist) nation.
Agree with you about Christians, though. All freedom and God loving peoples should rise up with them. Fact is that islam is incompatible with Judeo-Christian/Western/Human Civilization and we will ignore that reality only at our peril.
God helps those who help themselves
I have also heard "Work as though everything depends on you, pray as though everything depends on G-d."
Neither of those quotes is Biblical. Since G-d is so entirely other than me, I try not to "figure Him out."
G-d says, "I will bless whom I will bless and I will curse whom I will curse."
G-d also says, "For it is appointed unto man once to die, and after that, the judgement."
Shalom.
I agree, but God has dictated genocide and God has sent men to war. Killing is not against God's law.
Well its about time.....
We don't burn flags here, and with our low minority count and high gun ownership, we don't have rampaging.
The General is a muslim, and he wants to talk to the muslim insurgents.
Negotiate the terms of Dhimmitude?
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