VZCZCXRO2963
RR RUEHCHI RUEHCN RUEHDT RUEHHM
DE RUEHJS #0074/01 1710913
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 190913Z JUN 08
FM AMCONSUL SURABAYA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 0237
INFO RUEHZS/ASSOCIATION OF SOUTHEAST ASIAN NATIONS
RUEHBY/AMEMBASSY CANBERRA 0123
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC
RUEHJA/AMEMBASSY JAKARTA 0223
RUEHJS/AMCONSUL SURABAYA 0242
RUEHC/USAID WASHDC
RHHMUNA/USPACOM HONOLULU HI
RUEHWL/AMEMBASSY WELLINGTON 0123

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 SURABAYA 000074 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR EAP, EAP/MTS, INR/EAP, DRL/PHD 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV ID KISL PTER EAID PREL SOCI SCUL
SUBJECT: CENTRAL SULAWESI: LOCAL VIEWS OF POST CONFLICT ECONOMIC 
RECOVERY IN POSO 
 
REF: SURABAYA 85 
 
SURABAYA 00000074  001.2 OF 002 
 
 
This message is sensitive but unclassified.  Please protect 
accordingly. 
 
¶1. (SBU) Summary:  Former sites of extreme violence between 
Muslim and Christian communities throughout the Central Sulawesi 
city of Poso are now safe, although physical signs of the 
conflict remain.  Residents of the Poso and NGO leaders told 
visiting Surabaya Pol/Econ Officer that economic development is 
the key to integrating communities once polarized by violence. 
A tour of the city and discussion with residents confirmed that 
violence of the sort that occurred over the previous decade 
would not return if the economy continued to improve.  End 
Summary. 
 
¶2. (SBU) A late May car trip around Poso demonstrated that each 
of its neighborhoods had a different experience during the years 
of conflict.  Today, each is at a different stage of recovery. 
At one extreme, one former Christian area in southeast Poso is 
nothing but ruins hidden along asphalt streets nearly reclaimed 
by the jungle.  At the other extreme, several religiously mixed 
neighborhoods closer to central Poso were largely or completely 
unscathed during the fighting.  According to one NGO worker, 
Muslims and Christians in these neighborhoods protected one 
another's homes, identifying with neighbors of other faiths 
instead of with extremists of their own faith during the 
conflict.  Tanah Runtuh in southwest Poso is a village that was 
once the site of a shoot-out between Indonesian anti-terror 
units and the extremist group Jemaah Islamiyah.  Today Tanah 
Runtuh looks like a sleepy East Javanese village and local 
people travel freely through the center of town. 
 
Bamboo Hill Has Moved On 
----------------------------- 
 
¶3. (SBU) The predominantly Christian village of Bukit Bambu 
(Bamboo Hill) overlooks the city of Poso from an isolated 
hilltop about two miles southwest of downtown.  In 2005, three 
Christian girls native to the village were beheaded on an 
isolated road as they walked to school.  The road is still in 
poor repair and only motorcycles and pedestrians can use it 
safely, according to a minister and retired school teacher who 
live in the village.  The village's new church and elementary 
school were rebuilt in 2006.  Sweeping her outstretched arm as 
she stood in a soccer field that serves as the village square, 
the teacher said, "all this was burned to the ground."  She 
included her home and that of her neighbor, the minister, in the 
gesture.  They both said they can't afford to build new homes so 
temporary houses provided by the government, so-called RTS 
(Rumah Tinggal Sementara), have become their permanent homes. 
The heavily decorated graves of the three school girls beheaded 
by three extremist Muslim attackers are located barely two 
meters from the roadside at the village entrance.  Despite first 
hand experience with violence the villagers of Bukit Bambu said 
they are weary of conflict and focused on practical concerns, 
especially effective cocoa farming. 
 
¶4.  (SBU) Bukit Bambu's minister said that business skills are 
lacking among local farmers and this often causes jealousy 
towards Javanese and Balinese newcomers who seem to succeed 
where locals fail.  This was true particularly in retail trades 
but also in agriculture.  Local farmers need business skills to 
diversify and save for the long term, she said.  Poso farmers 
are too easily satisfied with just getting by while outsiders 
are apt to try to expand their operations and diversify, 
according to many in Poso.  Poso's limited local port facilities 
and roads exacerbate the region's isolation and increase the 
difficulty of moving goods to market.  Ironically, hillsides 
cleared for timber and cocoa production along the region's main 
artery, the Palu - Poso road, are prone to landslides as a 
result of deforestation.  This creates a need for major seasonal 
repair and further delays getting goods of all kinds to market. 
 
Sino-Indonesians, What Brings them Back? 
-------------------------------------------- 
 
¶5. (SBU)  Ethnic Chinese-Indonesians continue to return to Poso 
and many are playing an important economic role, according to 
observation and conversations with local residents.  Two large 
motorcycle retail franchises and repair shops have opened over 
the last four years across from the national police headquarters 
in Poso.  Poso's only large electrical appliance retailer opened 
nearby.  A motorcycle parts shop owner of Chinese descent told 
 
SURABAYA 00000074  002.2 OF 002 
 
 
Pol-Econ officer that she had returned just two years ago and 
opened up in a prime location next to the major motorcycle 
retailers in the center of town.  She sensed that there was some 
risk of violence to her business, but felt that such a 
possibility was remote.  When asked why some sections of the 
city had yet to see re-development, she speculated that many 
smaller Sino-Indonesian shop owners lacked the capital needed to 
return from where they had fled.  She explained that for a small 
shop owner, the returns would not outweigh the risks and many 
would be reluctant to start from scratch.  Portions of the city 
outside the main shopping district and Poso Market remain 
shuttered and some former shop fronts are being used as 
warehouses for other businesses, according to local merchants 
there. 
 
The New Terminal and the Rocky Road Ahead 
--------------------------------------------- --- 
 
¶6. (SBU) Poso's economy has long depended on its transport links 
to other parts of Sulawesi.  A strong migrant community in Poso 
reflects the region's history as a regional crossroads. 
However, there are no large scale port facilities, except those 
used for fuel transport by the national oil company Pertamina. 
Completed in 2007, a new transport terminal is an emblem of the 
challenges to recovery in Poso.  Constructed barely a half mile 
south of Tanah Runtuh and about two miles southwest of the city 
center, the new transport terminal was built to attract 
trans-Sulawesi transport from the coastal highway running 
through the city.  It has yet to replace the current terminal 
downtown, however.  Local residents said that the terminal is 
too far away from Poso Market.  Intended to relieve congestion 
downtown and develop other parts of the city damaged by the 
conflict, the roads linking the terminal to the coastal road or 
the rest of Poso have yet to be improved.  The site remains 
largely deserted, surrounded by fields, ruined buildings, and 
unimproved roads. 
MCCLELLAND