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March 24, 2007
Indonesia: Victories Against Muslim Militancy?
Alfita Poliwo (left) and Theresia Morangke, two of the victims decapitated on October 29, 2005
On Wednesday, March 21, three Islamist individuals who decapitated three Christian schoolgirls in 2005 were given jail sentences. On Saturday October 29, 2005, four schoolgirls were walking to their school in Bukit Bambu village in Gebong Rejo district in Poso regency, Central Sulawesi, Indonesia.
Before they reached their school, the four girls were attacked by a group of men wearing black attire, with their faces covered by black veils. Three of the girls had heads sliced off with machetes. The fourth girl, Noviana Malewo, was struck in the face with a machete, but survived. She is now scarred for life. She testified that up to six men had been involved in the attack, according to Indonesia's national police spokesman Aryanto Budiharjo. There is no reason to disbelieve Noviana's account, which means that up to three individuals have so far escaped justice.
The girls who died on October 29, 2005, were Ida Yarni Sambue (15), Theresia Morangke (15), and Alfita Poliwo (19). Their deaths signaled a renewal of the ferocity of the inter-religious conflict which has thrived in Poso since 1998 and had killed around 1,000 people in Sulawesi. This conflict was part of a wider Muslim insurgency against Christians known as the Moloccan War, which killed 9,000.
The population around Poso comprises approximately equal numbers of Christians and Muslims, compared to the overall ratio of 85% Muslims in the entire archipelago of Indonesia. Earlier in 2005, a bomb had gone off in a market in the Christian town of Tentena in the highlands near Poso. This bombing in May 2005 had killed 22 people.
After the beheadings of the three schoolgirls, attacks against Christians escalated, dying sown somewhat in the spring of 2006. Later in the year the conflicts resurfaced in September when bombings against Christian targets commenced. These attacks were connected with the upcoming execution of three Catholics from the neighboring province of East Nusa Tengerra.
These three men, Fabianus Tibo, 60, Marinus Riwu, 48, and Dominggus da Silva, 42, had been convicted in April 2001 of fomenting violence and killing Muslims in Poso in May 2000. The evidence against the three men was hardly conclusive, and certainly their sentence of death was a travesty of justice considering that Muslims who had incontrovertibly killed Christians had only received maximum sentences of 15 years' jail. At the time of the Catholics' trial in 2001, the courtroom had been surrounded by Islamists from the Front Pembela Islam demanding that if a death sentence was not passed, the courtroom would be destroyed.
Various US senators, the European Union and Pope Benedict XVI had appealed for the death sentence to be commuted, but the request was ignored. On September 20, 2006, Tibo, Riwu and da SIlva were executed by firing squad at the end of a rain-sodden runway at the airport in Palu, administrative capital of Central Sulawesi province. The following day, Christian populations in Poso and East Nusa Tengerra exploded into violence. On and off, sectarian violence has continued in Poso regency ever since. On October 16, Reverend Irianto Kongkoli, a protestant pastor who had campaigned for clemency for the three executed Catholics, was shot dead in a building supply store in Palu.
After the murders of the three schoolgirls in late 2005, and further attacks against other schoolgirls in the region, no developments had been made in bringing their assailants to justice. On May 5, 2006, five men were arrested in nearby Tolitoli regency, Central Sulawesi. These were then named as Apriyantono (aka Irwan), Arman (aka Haris), Asrudin, Nano and Abdul Muis.
On November 2 last year, two of these were among three men who began their trials in separate courtrooms in South Jakakrta District Court. The trial taking place in West Java island was an unusual precedent, but appears to have been a measure to prevent further escalation of sectarian tensions.
The men who stood trial were Lilik Purnomo, Irwanto Irano and a man named Hasanuddin, who was soon identified as the leader of the men who killed the three schoolgirls. Hasanuddin had been trained at a militant camp in the southern Philippines. This is probably the Jemaah Islamiyah-run training camp.
The court had heard that when the severed heads of the schoolgirls had been placed in plastic bags in their village, they were accompanied by a note, which read: "Wanted: 100 more Christian heads, teenaged or adult, male or female; blood shall be answered with blood, soul with soul, head with head."
Hasanuddin had consulted with a Muslim cleric in Poso before the attacks about mounting a Lebaran (Eid ul-Fitr) terror attack, to commemorate the end of Ramadan (which ended on November 3 in 2005). While living in the island of Mindanao in the southern Philippines, Hasanuddin had heard about the Filipino terror group MILF (Moro Islamic Liberation Front) carrying out terrorist atrocities to coincide with Eid. He had told Lilik Purnomo: "It would be a great Lebaran trophy if we got a Christian. Go search for the best place for us to find one."
Lilik scouted for victims, and soon fixed upon the schoolgirls who made a regular journey to their school. Hasanuddin hatched the plan to commit the atrocity while in the Gebang Rejo library. According to the prosecution, Hasanuddin said he realized killing women and children was "actually prohibited by sharia (law) but it was allowed to avenge what they (the Christians) have done to us." Hasanuddin ignored the truth that the Moluccan war had been deliberately initiated by Lashkar Jihad and other Islamist vigilante groups.
The news of the three men's convictions and sentences on March 21 came from the BBC, Voice of America, Reuters, Jakarta Post and Associated Press.
Hasanuddin (pictured) was given a 20-year jail sentence, while Lilik Purnomo and Irwanto Irano were given 14 years. The 20-year sentence is so far the longest given to any Muslim involved with killing Christians in the Poso conflict. The relatives of the three girls claimed after the trial said that the three killers deserved nothing less that life behind bars.
Hernius Morangki, the father of Teresia, said: "Twenty years is nothing compared to the sadness and suffering experienced by the victims and their families. This verdict should bring shame to Indonesia."
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Late on Tuesday March 20, the police anti-terror unit known as Detachment-88 had shot dead a suspect in Maguwoharjo village, Depok subdistrict, Sleman district, Yogyakarta. Another suspect was wounded, and several individuals had been arrested. A pistol, an M-16 rifle and hundreds of rounds of ammunition were seized in this raid. Syamsir Siregar, head of the State Intelligence Agency (BIN) said that the men were members of the Abu Dujana terrorist network.
He said: "Police are still trying to locate Abu Dujana`s hideouts. To be sure, five of his accomplices have been caught in a raid in which one of them was killed and another one injured."
The man who was killed was only identified as Ma, aged 39, who came from Magelang, Central Java. One suspect who was injured by gunshot had also come from Magelang. Three cars and two motorcycles were also seized during the raid.
Abu Dujana was named by Colonel Petrus Reinhard Golose, from Indonesia's counterterrism task force in March 22, 2006 as the leader of the terrorist group, Jemaah Islamiyah. Dujana is a former close associate of Riduan Isamuddin, aka Hambali (Riduan Isamuddin), who led Jemaah Islamiyah until his capture on August 11, 2003. Hambali is now in Guantanamo.
Dujana's real name is Ainal Bahri, whose nom de guerre derives from a warrior of the murderous prophet Mohammed, who always wore a rd turban around his head - his "turban of death". The historical Dujana had been given a sword by the founder of Islam, which Mohammed described in true Islamic spiritual style: "It is to strike the enemy's faces with it until it is bent."
The terrorist Abu Dujana, born around 1968 came from Cianjur, a town in West Java. It is the same town where Hambali came from. The pair had both trained in Afghanistan, and both were said to be trusted by Al Qaeda. Dijana had been a teacher at Luqmanul Hakiem School, outside of Johor, Malaysia. This pesantren was run by Mukhlas, who was convicted for the October 2002 Bali bombings, which killed 202 people, and who is awaiting execution. The exact date when Abu Dujana became head of Jemaah Islamiyah is not known.
On March 21, the day of the verdict on the Christian girls' killers, a 26-year old man identified as AM or JK was arrested in Purwosari, Temanggung, district, Central Java, around 5.30 pm. The man was living in a rented house with his wife and two children. A village head, Karno Budi, said that when he visited the house after the raid, he saw blood on the floor, indicating that the man had been shot. It is hinted at in the Indonesian media that the raids were connected.
The suspects from the raid in Yogyakarta were sent to the National Police Headquarters in Jakarta. Today's Jakarta Post reports that on Thursday night (March 22), the house in Sleman Yogyakarta on Tuesday was once again searched. The suspect in the house had been named as Sutarjo. A neighbor said that four M-16 rifles, handmade pistols and explosives had been taken. The neighbor said: "Those firearms were kept in a cabinet in Sutarjo's room."
He also stated that several containers were confiscated from the kitchen in the house. The neighbor said: "All this time, he was good to other residents. He was regularly gone from his house but I only knew that he was a preacher."
Sri Suyani, the wife of Sutarjo, has refused to give interviews to the press. The police have arrested six terror suspects since Tuesday. Two other suspects had been arrested in Surabaya, East Java on Wednesday.
The Jakarta Post states:
Edi was shot in the back while trying to escape, while Aman was shot in the stomach and died before reaching the hospital.
In Temanggung, Mujadid, alias Brekele, who is believed to have been involved in several terror acts in the Central Sulawesi town of Poso, was apprehended on Wednesday morning. Another suspect, Holis, alias Maulana, was arrested in Surabaya on the same day....
...In Wednesday's raid on Karim's home, located five kilometers away from Sutarjo's house, the police found 16 handmade bombs, two M-16 rifles, handmade guns and explosive materials, including 20 kg of TNT and 625 of kg potassium chlorate kept in 25 sacks. Some were hidden in a two-by-two-meter bunker under the kitchen."
Yotje Mende, senior commander of Surakarta Police, declined to say if the explosives which had been discovered had been destined for use in Poso, Central Sulawesi. He said there were more terror suspects at large in Surakarta, claiming: "We will continue hunting them down since there are many still roaming around here."
Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at March 24, 2007 8:05 PM
Comments
The world has already gone blind. The penalty for chopping the heads of school girls of ANY religion should be the same fate.
Posted by: Catawhumpus ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.westernresistance.com/nav-commenters.gif)
at March 25, 2007 11:43 AM
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