Christians remember dead after Indonesia bombings
-01/06/05
Mourners in Tentana, Indonesia, today remembered the victims of twin bombings that killed at least 20 people in a crowded marketplace in a Christian majority town on Saturday.
These were the deadliest terrorist attacks in Indonesia since the 2002 Bali bombings that killed hundreds of people. They have sent shockwaves across the country.
The bombings came just days after the US issued a fresh security warning in Indonesia and closed its diplomatic offices there. The blasts, on Sulawesi Island, were 15 minutes apart, according to Associated Press.
There has as yet been no claim of responsibility for the bombings, but suspicion has fallen on Islamic militants responsible for a series of attacks on Christians in Sulawesi Island since a peace deal in 2002 ended a bloody conflict that killed as many as 1,000 people.
Nineteen of the dead were Christians, hospital officials in Tentana said. One unidentified and unclaimed corpse lay in the hospitalís morgue covered by a bloody sheet.
Church leaders have called on Christians not to retaliate.î The terrorists want us to perform violent acts to return the region to chaos,î said Rinaldy Damanik, the leader of the Synod Churches of Central Sulawesi. ìWe must stay calm.î
Most people have heeded that call. But one angry mob stoned Tentanaís only mosque. Christians have offered help to its worshippers.
More than 90 per cent of Indonesiaís 210 million people are Muslims, and about eight per cent are Christian. Indonesia is the worldís most populous Muslim nation, but central Sulawesi has roughly equal Muslim and Christian populations.
Most of the countryís Muslims practice a moderate version of the faith. But attacks against Christians have increased since ex-dictator Suhartoís downfall in 1998, and amid a global rise in Islamic radicalism.
The bombing sparked concerns that the region could descend again into religious violence. The earlier conflict here and in the nearby Maluku Islands galvanized militant Muslims across Southeast Asia and from the Middle East.
Members of Jemaah Islamiyah, an al-Qaida-linked group, have been blamed for previous deadly bombings in Indonesia – including the Bali nightclub bombings that killed 202 people, most of them foreign tourists – and have told authorities they fought in the conflict or were inspired by it.
Indonesiaís President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who has vowed to root out militants, declined to speculate on the identity of the attackers.
Christians remember dead after Indonesia bombings
-01/06/05
Mourners in Tentana, Indonesia, today remembered the victims of twin bombings that killed at least 20 people in a crowded marketplace in a Christian majority town on Saturday.
These were the deadliest terrorist attacks in Indonesia since the 2002 Bali bombings that killed hundreds of people. They have sent shockwaves across the country.
The bombings came just days after the US issued a fresh security warning in Indonesia and closed its diplomatic offices there. The blasts, on Sulawesi Island, were 15 minutes apart, according to Associated Press.
There has as yet been no claim of responsibility for the bombings, but suspicion has fallen on Islamic militants responsible for a series of attacks on Christians in Sulawesi Island since a peace deal in 2002 ended a bloody conflict that killed as many as 1,000 people.
Nineteen of the dead were Christians, hospital officials in Tentana said. One unidentified and unclaimed corpse lay in the hospital’s morgue covered by a bloody sheet.
Church leaders have called on Christians not to retaliate.’ The terrorists want us to perform violent acts to return the region to chaos,’ said Rinaldy Damanik, the leader of the Synod Churches of Central Sulawesi. ‘We must stay calm.’
Most people have heeded that call. But one angry mob stoned Tentana’s only mosque. Christians have offered help to its worshippers.
More than 90 per cent of Indonesia’s 210 million people are Muslims, and about eight per cent are Christian. Indonesia is the world’s most populous Muslim nation, but central Sulawesi has roughly equal Muslim and Christian populations.
Most of the country’s Muslims practice a moderate version of the faith. But attacks against Christians have increased since ex-dictator Suharto’s downfall in 1998, and amid a global rise in Islamic radicalism.
The bombing sparked concerns that the region could descend again into religious violence. The earlier conflict here and in the nearby Maluku Islands galvanized militant Muslims across Southeast Asia and from the Middle East.
Members of Jemaah Islamiyah, an al-Qaida-linked group, have been blamed for previous deadly bombings in Indonesia – including the Bali nightclub bombings that killed 202 people, most of them foreign tourists – and have told authorities they fought in the conflict or were inspired by it.
Indonesia’s President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who has vowed to root out militants, declined to speculate on the identity of the attackers.