Kalla meets Poso leaders in bid to ease tensions
Business and Investment - October 30, 2006
Ruslan Sangaji, The Jakarta Post, Poso

In a bid to ease tensions in the conflict-scarred town of Poso, Vice President Jusuf Kalla met with local leaders here late Sunday.
Since Kalla's arrival Saturday, security has been tight at Poso's airport, Central Sulawesi Governor Bandjela Paliudju's office and around places of worship in the town.
Kalla and his entourage, including leaders of national-level religious organizations, met separately with Muslim and Christian leaders following a gathering at the Governor's office to discuss strategies for peace.
However, religious leaders doubted the meetings would be effective.
"I regret the separate meetings because this is no longer a horizontal conflict (between Christians and Muslims), it is vertical (between citizens and security forces)," AR Tobondo, the deputy head of the provincial council of churches, said Sunday.
Locals have accused security forces of being responsible for the recent violence. Muslim groups have said police were "biased against Muslims", while they and Christians have accused security forces of being unable to uphold the law. Both groups have also accused the police of inciting violence in some cases. Meanwhile, religious leaders have said relations between the Christian and Muslim communities have been fairly peaceful compared to the earlier bloodshed.
Locals, meanwhile, said the security around Kalla's weekend visit was unnecessarily extreme.
Thousands of people in the province were involved in demonstrations ahead of last month's executions of three Christians for their role in a 2000 massacre of Muslims.
A series of violent incidents has followed, with the results of police investigations yet to be publicly disclosed.
On Oct. 16, a Christian minister, Irianto Kongkoli, was shot and killed. A police post was attacked last week and Police Mobile Brigade troops raided a Muslim boarding school where they believed militants responsible for the violence were hiding.
Kalla said Sunday the current tension was caused by "outbursts involving people who don't want Poso to be secure; they are the enemies of all people in Central Sulawesi".
Three main opints were promised from the meetings. First, thorough investigation into the incident of Oct. 22 when police shot and killed one man and seriously injured a toddler. Second, "economic reconstruction" of the scarred town, and third, law enforcement.
Kalla, whose family comes from South Sulawesi, has been credited for his efforts leading to several government-sponsored truces to end communal conflicts in Maluku and Central Sulawesi. Thousands of people were killed in both conflicts from 1999 to 2002.
The truces have yet to be implemented in full, another religious leader, Achrul Udaya, said.