Channel NewsAsia is reporting that three teenage Christian girls have been beheaded in Indonesia’s Poso. Killing your own nationals, just for having a different faith, is unsettling.
What’s worse is killing young teenage girls. In the holy month of Ramadan. So what are the motivations?
Via Reuters AlertNet:
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono condemned the killings, which he described as “sadist and inhuman crimes”, and called an emergency security meeting with his vice-president, as well as military officials and police.
“The perpetrators wore black attire and veils and they used machetes to slash (the victims),” he told reporters in Jakarta.
Is this the starting of Muslim-Christian clashes, like what we saw in 1998 and 2001? I sincerely hope not. I don’t think Indonesia can handle any more: regular Bali bombings, pressure with regards to drug busts (and the Australian’s they seem to be arresting), and now the killing of the teenagers.
Update: Poso, and not Jakarta, as per a comment and confirming with more news sources. Poso, it seems is a divided town, and more information about it is available at Wikipedia’s Poso entry.
October 30, 2005 at 9:31 pm |
actually it took place in Poso, a conflict area in Central Sulawesi. Jakarta hasn’t had any major race clash since the 1998 tragedy. A report on local news at http://www.thejakartapost.com/detailheadlines.asp?fileid=20051030.@02&irec=1
October 30, 2005 at 9:40 pm |
Thanks for that orange. Update to make the report more accurate.