Hundreds of militants head for Sulawesi

Hundreds of Christians are being housed in community halls in a safe part of the district after fleeing Muslim violence

By Amy Chew

JAKARTA, Indonesia (CNN) -- Some 300 men from a militant Indonesian Muslim group are believed to be traveling to the island of Sulawesi to join hundreds of others who have been accused of sectarian violence against Christians which has killed 15 people.

Additional police and troops were rushed to the region several days ago, bringing an uneasy calm to the conflict-torn town of Poso in Central Sulawesi.

The Consultative Committee of the Indonesian Christian Community told CNN some 300 members of the militant laskar jihad group were seen boarding ships heading for Central Sulawesi from the city of Surabaya in eastern Java.

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"The laskar jihad was seen by our members boarding ships in Surabaya which were heading for Central Sulawesi," said Cornelius Ronowidjoyo, secretary-general of the committee.

"I am worried that these 300 men will try to enter Tentena where tens of thousands of Christians are gathered," reiterated Ronowidjoyo.

"If they (laskar jihad) enter Tentena, many people will die, from both sides, because the Christians there will fight back," said Cornelius.

Tentena lies 40 kilometers (25 miles) south of Poso and is the center of the Christian community in the region.

More than 45,000 Christian refugees are sheltering on the island along with its 20,000 inhabitants.

Laskar jihad

Christians have accused the laskar jihad from Java, who brandish automatic weapons and rocket launchers, of attacking Christians and burning hundreds of houses.

Laskar jihad has denied the charges, saying the group was only involved in providing medical aid and not fighting.

"They are purely involved in supplementing medical facilities and empowering the local community," Ayip Syafruddin, laskar jihad's spokesman, told CNN.

Asked whether 300 members were making their way to Poso, Syafruddin said, "that is not true, we have very few people in Poso, only tens of them."

Violence first erupted in Poso three years ago when drunken Christians celebrating Christmas assaulted a Muslim boy near a mosque.

The conflict has killed more than 1,000 people.

Muslims and Christians

After a period of hiatus, fresh violence broke out on November 27 when Christian and Muslim militias clashed for several days. Hundreds of houses were burnt and thousands fled to the hills.

A fact-finding team from the official National Human Rights Commission has also been dispatched to Poso.

B.N. Marbun, head of the fact-finding team, estimated that 600 members of laskar jihad were currently in Poso and were indirectly involved in exacerbating the conflict.

"There are currently 600 of them in Poso. The laskar jihad as well as other people not from the area should be removed," Marbun told CNN.

Marbun said during the recent clashes, troops and police were so poorly equipped and spread so thinly on the ground that they were overwhelmed.

"You had a situation where there may be seven security forces having to deal with a clash which involved some 100 people. In the end, they did not do anything because they were outnumbered and were scared.

"With the reinforcement, the numbers of personnel on the ground are sufficient but they have to be properly equipped," he said.

Incommunicado

Logistics for the troops and police are wholly insufficient, with many of them operating without radio equipment while posted in remote areas. "As such, calls for help often took a long time and resulted in reinforcements arriving late or after the clashes were over," said Marbun.

In addition, some security forces did not have enough to eat and had to depend on the local community for food.

"Therefore security personnel who have been stationed there for a while must be removed. This is to safeguard their neutrality, to prevent them from taking sides when clashes break out," said Marbun.

He said the commission will be recommending to the government to replace local government officials in Poso who failed to take action to stop the violence.

"When the conflict first started, it was only restricted to the town of Poso. Now, it has spread to almost the entire region of Poso." "We will be urging the government to immediately replace local leaders who are proven to be slow or who allowed the conflict to proceed without maximizing their efforts to handle the conflict in their respective capacities," said Marbun.