Indonesia boosts security in Poso, defends tactics
Source: Reuters
(Adds think tank comments, quotes) By Achmad Sukarsono JAKARTA, Jan 24 (Reuters) - Indonesia has sent 200 elite police officers to enforce security in the troubled Poso region of Sulawesi island after 14 people were killed during a raid on a suspected hideout of Muslim militants, police said on Wednesday. Officials defended Monday's raids in downtown Poso after criticism from Islamic groups and some local media that innocent people were killed in the gunfire that erupted between the suspected militants and police. "PKS (Prosperous Justice Party) regrets the Poso incident because many victims have fallen, particularly people who have no link to the dispute," said Tifatul Sembiring, head of the PKS, an Islamic party and part of the government coalition. But Badrodin Haiti, police chief of Central Sulawesi, said there was evidence that security forces had been attacked with illegal firearms. "Jakarta has sent 200 more policemen to help. We are searching thoroughly in the jungles for possible injured people and bombs that could endanger the community," Haiti told Reuters. Police had arrested 25 suspected militants and seized ammunition and bombs during Monday's raid. Some of the fighters were trained in Afghanistan and the southern Philippines, Haiti said earlier in the week. Poso has been tense since the execution of three Christian militants in September over their role in Muslim-Christian violence in the region from 1998 to 2001. Three years of sectarian violence in Central Sulawesi killed more than 2,000 people before a peace accord took effect in late 2001. There has been sporadic violence since. The International Crisis Group in a report on the latest clashes in Poso said police handling of the affair could further enrage Muslim militants. "A jihad that has been largely directed against local Christians could now be focused on the police .. and give a boost to Indonesia's weakened jihadi movement," the thinktank said. It called for an inquiry into police tactics. Indonesia's deputy police chief Makbul Padmanegara told reporters in Jakarta the operation in Poso was not targeted against Muslims. "What we are doing is not against the Muslim community but against those who committed crimes," he said. "Perpetrators are hiding behind the religious community and terrorising witnesses." Police said that more than 20 Muslim militants wanted in connection with past attacks, including the 2005 beheadings of Christian girls, were still on the loose. The ICG warned of the possibility that some of the Poso militants could spread out across Indonesia and link up with other radical elements. "Even if these dangers are avoided and the remaining suspects are arrested, noone should be complacent that the violence in Poso is over," it said. Around 85 percent of Indonesia's 220 million people follow Islam, but some areas in eastern Indonesia like Poso have roughly equal numbers of Muslim and Christians. (Additional reporting by Mita Valina Liem and Telly Nathalia)
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