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May 10, 2006

Indonesia: Islamists Confess To Poso Beheadings

On Saturday October 29 last year, four Christian schoolgirls were on their way to school in a village near Poso, in Central Sulawesi, Indonesia. The four girls never reached their school. They were attacked by a group of men dressed entirely in black, who hacked at them with machetes. Noviana Malewa was severely injured in her face and was left for dead. Her schoolmates, Ida Yarni Sambue (15), Theresia Morangke (15), and Alrfita Poliwo (19), had their heads chopped off.

The girl on the left below is Alfrita Poliwo, and the girl on the right is Theresia Morangke.

Now, news coming in from IC Wales, the Scotsman, the Jakarta Post, The South African Independent and Associated Press via CNN reports that seven people have confessed to the beheadings of the three girls, and the attack upon Noviana.

Two of the suspects have said that they have links with the Malaysian-born Noordin Mohammed Top, the main financier for Muslim terror group Jemaah Islamiyah.

We reported on the arrests of five of these men in Sulawesi on May 8. These individuals are Apriyantono (aka Irwanto Irano, aka Irwan), Lili Purwanto (aka Arman, aka Haris), Jendra, (aka Rahmat, aka Asrudin), Nano Maryono and Abdul Muis, and were arrested on Friday night (May 5).

The two other individuals, Hasanudin (aka Iwan) and Taufik (aka Opik) were arrested on May 8 in Palu and Poso respectively, on Sulawesi island. The arrest of the pair were the culmination of several months' investigation.

There were reports on Monday that some of the five arrested had been involved with the killing of a Christian priest, Rev. Susianti Tinulele, in 2004. These initial suppositions appear unfounded.

National Police chief of detectives Comr. Gen. Makbul Padmanegara said that three of the men now held also had direct involvement with the murder of Helmi Tobiling, the wife of a Poso-based soldier, on July 17, 2004.

"We have sufficient evidence that he (Taufik) was involved in planning the beheading of three girls in Poso and the murder of Helmi Tobiling," Makbul claimed.

Hasanudin was being detained for the same offences. The third individual was Lili Purwanto, aka Haris who had carried out the attacks on the schoolgirls. Jendra (Asrudin) was involved in the murder of Helmi Tobiling, and Irwanto had assisted in the planning of the schoolgirls' beheadings and the murder of Helmi.

Makbul claimed that Lili Purwanto, aka Haris, was also involved in the killing a Hindu Balinese man, I Wayan Sumaryasa. Two individuals, Ipong and Yusuf are now standing trial for this offence.

The police commander said that Nano and Abdul Muis were arrested for hiding the three murder suspects.

In an unusual move, he also said that he would not be linking the men held with militant groups who had carried out other sectarian attacks in Poso in recent years, because of fears that it would inflame tensions.

Between 2001 and 2002, about 1,000 people were killed in sectarian conflicts between Muslims and Christians on Sulawesi.

These killings were part of a wider war between Muslims and Christians in the Moluccan archipelago, which claimed the lives of 9,000 people between 1999 and 2002. The violence in the Moluccan wars was initiated and mainly perpetrated by Lashkar Jihad, a militant Islamist group led by Jaffar Umar Thalib. Thalib has never been punished for his crimes, which amounted to genocide.

As we reported in March it appears that currently there are attempts by Muslim extremists to inflame sectarian tensions with more attacks upon Christians on Sulawesi.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at May 10, 2006 9:34 AM

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