Poso cycle of violence
Jkt Post, Editorial January 23, 2007

Hopes were high last September that peace would last in Poso after police executed three Christian men convicted of carrying out a series of killings in the Central Sulawesi town in 2000.
There was a general perception among the country's leaders that such tough law enforcement would put an end to the cycle of violence that had transformed a picturesque town into a killing field.
However this expectation proved to be wrong. A resurge in tension was marked with the deaths of at least 12 people, including two police officers, within the past week. The killings came in the wake of a crackdown on terror suspects believed to have perpetrated a string of murders and bomb attacks in Poso, including a market blast which killed six people in 2004.
Local police said eight armed civilians and a member of the anti-terror squad died on Monday during a shootout in the Tanah Runtuh area in downtown Poso. However, the National Police have denied the reports, saying no civilians were killed in the latest gunfight. Police also captured five wanted men, and shot dead two others for resisting arrest during a raid last week.
It perhaps is too early to accuse the government of raising false hopes when executing Christian migrants Fabianus Tibo, Dominggus da Silva and Marianus Riwu.
Poso people have been longing for peace for more than five years -- since the leaders of Muslim and Christian communities signed a peace agreement in the South Sulawesi town of Malino in December 2001. The agreement was thanks in part to the active role of the then coordinating minister for the people's welfare Jusuf Kalla.
Despite the peace, the attacks went on. Late last year, the police began taking serious measures to apprehend the people continuing the conflict. They involved religious leaders, who identified the suspects, and police initially refrained from using force by asking these people to voluntarily surrender. Only one suspect complied with the request.
However, inconsistent law enforcement, as evident in the police's decision to extend the deadline for the suspects to surrender three times, has contributed to the slow pace of conflict resolution in the town, where security authorities were often involved in the prolonged sectarian violence and accused of bias.
But this nation has long faced difficulties in enforcing the law -- if big-time graft convicts can escape overseas with millions of dollars in public money, then so too can killers.
The local police face challenges to keeping order in the town not only because they are up against committed terrorists but also because of their long-standing reputation as corrupt and prejudiced.
There is suspicion that an international terror network has played a role in perpetuating the conflict in Poso. The government once entertained this possibility, only to deny it a few days later.
What should be remembered is that Poso was just another city on the Indonesian map until the bloodshed erupted in 2000.
With thousands of police and soldiers deployed in the town of 250,000 people, it is hard to accept that five years have been wasted on security operations there.
One of the worst mistakes the government has made in trying to solve the Poso conflict is by using a top-down approach and not dealing with local communities.
Without fanfare, a group of local people and civil society activists have been attempting to emulate the peace arranged in Maluku, which was rocked by sectarian riots just before Poso.
They are bridging communications between communities that earlier fought each other to, in the long-run, encourage them to forgive. Such efforts, whether they succeed or fail, deserve support from the government.
Cracking down on people in possession of arms or explosives is a must in a conflict. But peace will only survive through continuous, genuine and people-based dialog.