Here's a fascinating story from AKI/Fabio about the roots of violence in SulSel....hmmm why am I not surprised. Hey Kuku, ya think the local press will ever get around to reporting this?

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INDONESIA: POSO VIOLENCE FUELLED BY ECONOMIC INTERESTS, SAYS NGO

Jakarta, 27 Oct. (AKI) - While the unrest in Indonesia's Central Sulawesi province is often seen as sectarian violence between Muslims and Christians, at least one group working in the restive Poso region believes the violence there has different causes. The conflict is actually fuelled by economic interests which involve the armed forces and big industry, according to Arianto Sangaji, executive director of Tanah Merdeka [Free Land] a NGO in Poso which has always followed developments closely.

The violence has taken on externally the appearance of sectarian bloodletting after the execution of three Christians on 22 September, for their role in a wave of violence in 1998-2001. A church was set on fire Tuesday, and in recent weeks mobs have killed two Muslim traders and a Christian priest and there have been at least seven bomb blasts.

"The army and the police provide security to the industries that operate in the area and naturally, in return, they receive a lot of money," said Arianto. "It is obvious that both of them [army and police] have an interest in keeping the tension high" he added.

In Indonesia, the state provides only 30 percent of the annual budget of the power of the armed forces which finance themselves through a financial empire valued at close to one billion dollars. The army and police have often been accused of involvement in illegal activities especially in conflict zones.

The entry salary for a simple soldier or policeman is around 500,000 rupiahs - less than 50 euros per month.

According to Tanah Merdeka, local industries need the protection of the armed forces - because their economic interests often conflict with the interests of the local population.

"Some industries use the conflict to gain possession of land," said Arianto, pointing out that the detachments of the military battalions in Central Sulawesi are situated close to big industrial plants.

Furthermore, in a recent interview with Radio Netherlands, George Junus Aditjondro, an academic with a deep knowledge of Poso, said: "Big industries in Poso are taking advantage of the conflict to ignore the law, while small ones are prospering thanks to the presence of so many troops."

There are both national and international companies present in the area and almost all of them are involved in the mineral or energy sectors. They include RioTinto, an Australian mining company, Pertamina, the Indonesian national oil company, Guthrie, a Malaysian palm oil firm, and the PT Bukaka Teknik Utama, an Indonesian firm involved in building a hydroelectric plant which is traceable to the economic empire of vice president Jusuf Kalla.

Sulawesi Central is one of the few Indonesian provinces where Christians and Muslims are numerically close to equal.

The population of Indonesia is 87 percent Muslim but in Poso Muslims are 45 percent and Christians 42 percent of the population, while the rest are Hindu and Buddhist.

In 1998-2001, sectarian clashes led to the deaths of about 1,000 people and displaced some 60,000. The violence was brought to an end when a peace deal was signed in December 2001. Despite this, sporadic episodes of violence have continued.

In interviews with Adnkronos International (AKI) various local religious leaders said that the conflict between the two communities had finished and that the attacks are being prolonged by "third parties" with an interest in keeping the conflict alive

Well, riccardo, ANTARA is saying something about the matter. Now if they would only put a name on this mysterious "small group of people" ...


Non-Islamic, non-Christian group sowing terror in Poso, BIN Chief says

Jakarta (Antara News) - National Intelligence Agency (BIN) Chief Syamsir Siregar said here Monday a small group of people not belonging to Islamic nor Christian communities in Poso, Central Sulawesi, had been trying to keep on sowing terror in the region.

The small radical group wanted to continue committing acts designed to create unrest in the region`s community, Siregar said after attending a function to mark the 78th anniversary of Youth Pledge Day at the vice presidential office here.

Until now, the group was still in Poso and they had bombs and many other fire arms used in the killing of a Protestant priest by masked men two weeks ago, he said.

Another church minister, Susianti Tinulele, was shot to death by masked men when she was leading a church service in Poso in July 2004 while two school girls were killed and mutilated by unidentified men in Poso in 2005.

Central Sulawesi Governor Paliuju who also attended the Youth Pledge Day function confirmed the existence of small armed groups in Poso, saying this had become evident when policemen on search operations sometimes heard shots they did not fire.

The governor, however, could not name the terror groups but said the government would set up an independent fact-finding team to investigate the bloody crimes in Poso.

The team, he said, would comprise policemen, the military and local residents.

He said the government would not increase the number of security personnel in Poso.

Meanwhile, about a thousand Poso residents staged a demonstration outside the Provincial Legislative Assembly building in Palu, capital of Central Sulawesi, on Monday, urging the government to withdraw all Mobile Brigade police personnel from Poso.

The demonstrators who had first gathered at the Baitul Rahman mosque and then marched to the provincial legislature said the presence of Mobile Brigade personnel in Poso had led to conflicts, rather than creating peace.

They said Mobile Brigade policemen fired at people arbitrarily in the Gebangrejo area in Poso on the eve of the Idul Fitri on October 22.

They asked the government to set up a fact finding team to look into the conflict which had killed a number of people and injured many others.(*)

"...Monday a small group of people not belonging to Islamic nor Christian communities in Poso, Central Sulawesi, had been trying to keep on sowing terror in the region...."

I knew it, I knew it all along, those darn Buddhists are at it again!