Weapons seized, tension builds in Sulawesi and Moluccas
Jakarta (AsiaNews) Local Poso residents and officials in the Central Sulawesi Province are concerned after three handmade bombs were confiscated following a search conducted in the city this past Sunday afternoon. Tension remains high amid fears of new terrorists activities and recurrences of bomb blasts in the area.
An explosion had already occurred in the area, when a low explosive device was detonated in a local field last week. While no fatalities were reported in the blast, the explosion occurred in front of the head's offices of the Lembomawo sub-district in Poso, where a window was blown out.
An incident caused further fear in Poso's local residents, as today police found another bomb and other homemade rifles in a stable owned by Suyono, a resident of Tabalu village in the Poso Pesisir district.
Earlier, a Poso Conflict Resolution Team released a report, expressing much concern over new violence in the months ahead. According to the team's chairman, Darwis Waru, the death toll reached 35 last year. Bomb blasts and mysterious sniper fire reached the highest record (19 times), following 16 cases of finding bombs.
Recent violence the Central Sulawesi Province is a further sign that lasting peace has not come to the area since the signing of the Dec. 20 2001 peace accord between warring Muslim and Christian communities.
Another region still suffering from religious tensions is the Northern Moluccas area. Between 1999 and 2001 a war between Christian and Muslims made at least 5 thousand dead and hundred of thousand refugees. Although a peace accord was signed in Malino on February 2002, tension in the Moluccas island is rising. President Megawati Sukarnoputri cancelled her first official visit to the Moluccas for "security reasons", scheduled for Dec. 28 2003.
However, Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare, Yusuf Kalla, visited the region on Dec. 30. He said that there was no more need to provide humanitarian aid to refugees and said that of Jan.1 the central government would end all financial support to the region, leaving the problem in the hands of the Moluccas governor.
Nearly 37,878 families or 188,109 are still living in the Moluccas area as refugees. Around 14 thousand are still sheltered in Manado (North Sulawesi). Among them 5 thousand have opted to stay there permanently. Of the 25,000 that earlier had returned to the North Moluccas, a number was disillusioned with the accomodation that was available for them on Ternate and Halmahera, so they came back to North Celebes again. (MH)
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