Two blasts mark preparations for Poso Lake Festival
Ruslan Sangadji, The Jakarta Post, Poso, 7 Dec 2007

Two explosions marred preparations for Thursday's opening of the revived Poso Lake Festival, which had been canceled indefinitely following religious conflict in Central Sulawesi in the early 2000s.

The first explosion occurred at Kawua village in South Poso district, Poso regency, at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, in front of Puncak restaurant and about 200 meters from the Sintuwu Maroso military post. The second was at Soulowe village in Dolo district, Donggala regency, at 10 p.m.

There were no reports of casualties.

Poso, which used to be famous for its pristine natural beauty, and surrounding areas had been the scene of a series of bloody conflicts between Muslims and Christians that left some 1,000 people dead between 2000 and 2001.

The police had not yet determined the cause and nature of the Thursday's explosions, but local people suspected they had been caused by bombs.

Some witnesses in front of Puncak restaurant reported seeing a plastic bag at the side of the road just before the explosion. They had thought it was merely garbage.

"We only realized it was a bomb after it exploded," a resident, who asked not to be identified, told The Jakarta Post.

Head of the Central Sulawesi Police, Gen. Brig. Badrodin Haiti, said police were still investigating the cases and had not determined conclusively whether the explosions were caused by bombs.

Police and soldiers closed all roads leading to Poso and investigated several places in the two regencies. They said the festival, to be held from Thursday to Monday, would go on as planned.

"We have prepared our officers to oversee events. We guarantee the festival will run well," Badrodin said.

One bomb squad was deployed to Saulowe in Donggala soon after the explosion there, but was unable to reach any conclusions due to an electricity outage.