Central Sulawesi Governor Longki Djanggola is downplaying the recurrent violence in Poso, describing the incidents, which include the murder of two police officers, as run-of-the-mill community conflicts.
Longki said that such conflicts in Poso were frequently sparked by brawls between intoxicated teenagers from different villages.
“What started off as juvenile delinquency was eventually manipulated by irresponsible parties,” Longki told reporters on the sidelines of a meeting with representatives from the People’s Consultative Assembly (MPR) on Thursday.
The governor added that Poso was not the only place suffering from terror attacks in the country. “Terrorism happens because of differences in ideology. Therefore, it can happen in Poso, Solo [Central Java] or any other place,.”
Longki said that Poso was now safe thanks to heightened security measures maintained by local troops and police.
“Poso is now safe. We have arrested and punished the terrorists. We have also engaged young people and local leaders in a discussion on how to prevent similar incidents from happening again,” Longki, a politician with the Great Indonesia Movement (Gerindra) Party, said.
However, in Poso, local residents continue to encounter threats from terrorists. People in Lanto Jaya, a hamlet that is about 7 kilometres north of Poso, for example, found an apparent homemade bomb on Thursday.
One eyewitness, Yunita, said that she was sweeping her backyard when she found an item wrapped inside a black plastic bag.
“I was suspicious and immediately filed a report with the police,” she said as quoted by Antara news wire.
Members of the local police’s Mobile Brigade special operations unit Gegana bomb squad quickly descended on the site to secure the area.
The police said the package contained a low-grade explosive similar to that found by Indonesian Military (TNI) troops in Tamanjeka hamlet, Masani village, where several suspected terrorist reportedly operate training camps.
In one such reported terrorist camp, officials found a rifle, 10 bullets, camouflage fatigues, raincoats, knives, power transformers, oil, cables, batteries and a tree with the word “Al-jihad” carved on it.
Al-jihad is an Islamic extremist group that has been active since the late 1970s and has been seeking to overthrow the Egyptian government in favor of an Islamic state.
Also on Thursday, 300 officers and troops from the Central Sulawesi Police and the TNI continued to hunt for suspected terrorists near Gunung Biru.
Central Sulawesi Police chief Brig. Gen. Dewa Parsana said that no terror suspects were arrested during the manhunt, as reported by Antara news wire.
Dewa said that the suspects might have fled the area before the troops and police officers arrived on the scene.
The list of suspected terrorist incidents in the regency is topped by the discovery of the bodies of slain police officers Chief. Brig. Sudirman and First Brig. Andi Sappa in Tamanjeka in October.
The homicides were preceded by a host of events, including the detonation of an improvised explosives at a traffic police post in October that injured a police officer and a security guard, a shooting at Masani village that injured resident Hasman Sao and the detonation of another bomb in Kawua.
Late last week, local residents and officers from the National Police’s Densus 88 counterterrorism unit clashed in Poso following the shooting and the arrests of local clerics thought to have terrorist ties.
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