VZCZCXRO6466
PP RUEHCHI RUEHDT RUEHHM
DE RUEHJA #2100/01 2751145
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 021145Z OCT 06
FM AMEMBASSY JAKARTA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 0758
INFO RUEHZS/ASSOCIATION OF SOUTHEAST ASIAN NATIONS
RUEHBY/AMEMBASSY CANBERRA 9967
RUEHWL/AMEMBASSY WELLINGTON 1053
ZEN/AMCONSUL SURABAYA

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 JAKARTA 012100 
 
SIPDIS 
 
FROM AMCONSUL SURABAYA 2517 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR EAP/MTS, DRL 
 
E.O. 12958: NA 
TAGS: PGOV PHUM KJUS KCRM ID
SUBJECT: Eastern Indonesia: Violence Increases After 
Poso 3 Executions 
 
Ref: A. JAKARTA 4365 
     ¶B. JAKARTA 11799 
 
¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY: The execution of the "Poso 3" on 
September 22 was immediately followed by an outbreak of 
violence in East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) (Flores and West 
Timor) and later in Central Sulawesi, where the 
executions occurred.  The reaction was not unexpected 
by local officials; police in NTT had told Principal 
Officer in August their top security concern was the 
potential for trouble once the executions went forward 
and the Central Sulawesi police chief had called for 
5,000 additional officers to support security for the 
executions.  Violence in Poso and Tentena has surged in 
the past few days as the already tense situation 
worsened with several small attacks provoking larger 
ones, resulting in a large-scale police redeployment in 
the area.  Social factors which fed the NTT outburst 
are local Catholic residents' feelings of 
discrimination and neglect by the Muslim Javanese 
central government, moral opposition to the death 
penalty by local and international religious leaders 
and international NGOs and the sense that the Poso 3, 
originating from NTT, were being picked on since there 
were many additional people culpable for the violence 
that will never be prosecuted.  The NTT violence was 
also a reaction of simmering tensions and unhappiness 
with government policies on internally displaced 
persons in NTT and the all too usual groups of 
provocateurs who seem to never miss an opportunity to 
advance their own agendas through violence.  End 
Summary. 
 
Central Sulawesi - Violent Reaction Picking Up Steam 
--------------------------------------------- ------- 
 
¶2. (SBU) Initial reaction in Central Sulawesi was 
emotionally charged but muted due to the heavy security 
provided by police and military personnel (see ref B). 
Police were withdrawn from Tentena and Poso late in the 
day of the executions as the situation was calm.  The 
bodies of Tibo and Riwu were airlifted to Morowali, 
Central Sulawesi, where they were greeted by a mob of 
several thousand mourners and buried in separate 
ceremonies 40 kilometers apart.  Police maintained a 
heavy presence in the Morowali area and no violence 
started during or after the funerals.  ConGen contacts 
say that the situation in Poso and Tentena remained 
tense but calm after the executions. 
 
¶3. (SBU) There have been several recent reports of 
escalating violence in Poso and Tentena since the 
executions.  According to Darlis Muhammad, a journalist 
for Tempo, a car traveling from Makassar to Tentena was 
found in Taripa, a predominantly Christian village 20 
miles from Tentena, with its two Muslim passengers 
missing on September 23.  The Central Sulawesi police 
Chief Badrodin Haiti arrived in Taripa on September 28 
to investigate the disappearances. A crowd of 5,000 
attending a traditional local harvest festival rushed 
his helicopter. Fearing the worst, the 30 mobile 
brigade police assigned to protect Haiti "brutally" 
repelled the surging residents using batons and gun 
butts.  Haiti ended up fleeing on the back of a 
motorcycle as his helicopter was rendered inoperable by 
the crowd.  The crowd, angered by the response, burned 
the local police station and three of its vehicles. 
The crowd also killed a police dog during the attack 
and ate it, apparently intending to offend local Muslim 
police officers. 
 
¶4. (SBU) Early September 30, newspapers reported three 
separate small bombs were detonated in Poso City, one 
near a church, causing no injuries or damage.  A few 
hours later, police and military officers defused a 
potentially dangerous situation when two angry mobs of 
several hundred men from neighboring Poso villages, one 
Christian and one Muslim, faced off ready to fight.  On 
October 1, ConGen contacts in Poso said a group of 
several dozen masked assailants in a predominantly 
Muslim area of Poso City blockaded a road with a 
burning motorcycle and attacked five passengers on a 
public transport.  A Christian woman reportedly died 
from stab wounds suffered in the attack.  In a separate 
 
JAKARTA 00012100  002 OF 003 
 
 
incident the same day, a Poso City police substation 
was burned by a group of people.  Banjela Paliuju, 
governor of Central Sulawesi, held an emergency meeting 
of local political and religious leaders in Poso City 
on October 1 to appeal for patience and calm to avoid 
further violence. 
 
¶5. (SBU) 5,000 mobile brigade police have been 
redeployed in Poso in a show of force to try to avoid 
further violence.  According to Darwis Waru, head of 
the Poso Conflict Resolution Working Group, local 
political and religious leaders are of divided opinions 
as to whether the massive police presence will diffuse 
or exacerbate the security situation.  Local residents 
fear a return to the violence of the recent past and 
deeply distrust the police, as they are seen to be a 
causal force in the past violence.  Local leaders hope 
to limit the time large numbers of police are 
patrolling Poso streets in an effort to limit their 
contact with the public. 
 
Initial Violence in Flores - Situation Now Calm 
--------------------------------------------- -- 
 
¶6. (SBU) Reaction in Flores, home of Domingus Da Silva, 
was initially peaceful, if emotional.  However, 
violence broke out later September 22 following the 
execution, when approximately 3,000 people in Maumere 
rioted and destroyed the local parliament building, the 
local prosecutor's office, and burnt down the district 
Court building.  The violence seemed to be sparked by 
the news that Da Silva had been hastily buried in Palu 
rather than returned to Flores for a "proper" burial. 
Police have arrested three people they believe 
instigated the riots, including activists from the 
Indonesian Catholic Student Association (PMKRI).  The 
Chairman of the PMKRI Presidium in Jakarta was unhappy 
about the involvement of the local organization, noting 
that he believes there are many radical Christian and 
Muslim "interest" groups who would like to see NTT 
become another Poso. 
 
¶7. (SBU) The night after the executions, Da Silva's 
family forcibly exhumed his coffin from the cemetery in 
Palu and brought it to Santa Maria Church where local 
supporters prayed and held vigil until his body was 
flown on a domestic commercial flight to Maumere, 
Flores on September 24.  Dozens of military personnel 
and police officers guarded the Palu airport during 
transit of the body.  There were no reports of violence 
in Palu.  In Maumere, Da Silva's body was taken to 
Santo Yosef Cathedral where thousands of wailing 
mourners joined a mass prayer for the deceased led by 
father Fransciscus Pao of the Maumere Diocese, after 
which Da Silva was buried in his home village of 
Waikodo.  Our contacts report that all major Maumere 
leaders, including Sikka regent Alex Longginus, Maumere 
Police Chief Adjunct Senior Commissioner Endang 
Syafrudin and Frans Seda, former Minister of Finance 
during the Suharto administration, attended the 
funeral. 
 
A Strong Reaction in West Timor 
------------------------------- 
 
¶8. (SBU) The greatest violence occurred in Kefamenanu 
in central West Timor and Atambua in the northern West 
Timor, near the border with East Timor, on the day of 
the excecution (see ref B).  On the surface, these 
cities would not be likely locations for such strong 
emotions on the Poso 3 case.  According to ConGen 
contacts, opposition to the executions was the spark 
but the existing social stresses created the tinderbox. 
These areas are suffering from lingering drought, 
growing poverty, and other stresses exacerbated by the 
ten thousand internally displaced persons (IDPs) from 
East Timor, many of whom have resisted resettlement and 
are still living in camps (see 05 Jakarta 15889).  In 
addition, contacts indicate that the rioting in these 
areas was worsened by large numbers of East Timorese 
IDPs leaving their camps and entering Atambua 
specifically to add to the chaos.  NTT police, 
augmented by Mobile Brigade reinforcements sent from 
Bali, have arrested at least five people believed to be 
 
JAKARTA 00012100  003 OF 003 
 
 
the instigators of the violence. 
 
The Death Penalty and Justice 
------------------------------ 
 
¶9. (SBU) Opposition to the death penalty by Indonesian 
and foreign Catholics (and some Protestants) as well as 
by human rights NGOs and their intense lobbying of the 
Indonesian government was a factor in the controversy 
surrounding these executions.  (Note: Expatriate 
priests still exert strong influence over Catholics in 
NTT, especially in Flores.)  Many NTT residents believe 
that the executions were previously postponed as a 
response to appeals by Pope Benedict XVI and the 
Bishop's conference of Indonesia.  Other strong appeals 
were made by the EU, several individual European 
nations, and NGOs such as Amnesty International. 
Central Sulawesi contacts contradict that notion, 
claiming that former Central Sulawesi police chief 
Oegroseno was unprepared to carry out the executions 
last August as scheduled. 
 
¶10. (SBU) During recent visits to NTT, ConGen Surabaya 
officers heard from all levels of contacts the common 
belief that as NTT natives, the three did not receive 
justice.  When probed to articulate where the justice 
system failed, we heard several theories.  They 
included the three were guilty but were scapegoats for 
more influential protestant culprits from Central 
Sulawesi (evidenced by the lack of other convictions); 
the three were guilty but should not be given the death 
penalty, in light of the less severe sentences given to 
Muslims for other "similar" crimes; and they must be 
innocent as a NTT native and/or Christian can not 
receive a fair trial in Indonesia.  Strangely, few of 
our contacts argued that the three were innocent 
because they did not participate in the 2000 massacres. 
Some of the more popular banners in Maumere included: 
"Where are the masterminds of Poso?" "Don't make Tibo 
and his friends the scapegoats" and "Don't oppress 
people for the sake of certain interest groups." 
 
HEFFERN