by Mathias Hariyadi

According to police, he is implicated in violence that hit central Sulawesi between 2000 and 2007. He is currently held in a special high security detention centre where he is being interrogated by prosecutors. In Jakarta, 50 Islamic extremists are set to go on trial, including the moneyman for the July 2005 hotel attacks.

Jakarta (AsiaNews) – Indonesia’s elite anti-terror unit arrested Eko Budi Wardoyo (aka Munsih e Amin), the alleged author of a series of anti-Christian attacks in Poso, Tentena and Palu (central Sulawesi) between 2000 and 2007, General Tito Sumardi, head of the Indonesian police, said today. The arrest was carried out on 26 January in the town of Sidoarjo, some 25 kilometres south of Surabaya, capital of East Java.

The police chief said that the terrorist suspect is “under tight security” and is being “interrogated by prosecutors in a special detention house at the elite Mobile Brigade HQ in Kelapa Dua, Depok (West Java). When police arrested Eko, they found important documents in his possession.

Eko Budi Wardoyo had been on run for the past five years because of his involvement in the murder of Rev Susianti Tinulele, a woman pastor killed in South Palu (central Sulawesi) on 18 July 2004. She was shot dead at the altar as she was delivering the Sunday Mass sermon. Four members of her congregation were hurt during the incident: 15-year-old Farid Melindo, 18-year-old Christianto, 15-year-old Listiani and 17-year-old Desri.

Eko is also thought to have played a role in the bloody attacks in Poso in May 2005, including one that hit one of the city’s traditional markets that killed 22 people and seriously injured an additional 93. In 2005, he is also a suspect in a bomb blast in Palu’s meat market.

For Police Inspector Edward Aritonang, Eko is a “professional killed, smart at taking on different aliases” to elude capture.

Anti-Christian violence has been a problem for many years. On 16 October 2005, Rev Irianto Kongkoli, a member of the Christian Protestant Churches Synod, was shot dead by an unknown.

The next day, local sources told AsiaNews that the clergyman had become a target for Islamic extremists because of his actions in favour of persecuted Christians. In an interview before his death, the reverend had said that someone was orchestrating the campaign of violence but did not mention them by name.

In the meantime, police in Jakarta are getting ready to bring 50 Islamic extremists to justice. They include Muhammad Jibriel Abdul Rahman, a key fundraiser for Islamic terrorism, and a Saudi national, Al Khelaiw Ali Abdullah, who funded the attacks against the Marriot and Ritz-Carlton hotels in Jakarta in July 2009.

• indonesia
• islam
• extremism
• catholic
• church
• anti-terrorism
• attacks
• violence