[Kabar-indonesia] Homemade bomb explodes in abandoned house near Poso: Police

[Joyo at aol.com]

The Associated Press
October 8, 2006
 
Homemade bomb explodes in abandoned house in Indonesia, police say  

JAKARTA, Indonesia Police said a homemade bomb exploded Sunday at an 
abandoned house in a part of Indonesia with a history of deadly violence between 
Muslims and Christians. The building was slightly damaged, but there were no 
reports of injuries.
 
Lt. Col. Muhammad Kilat, a spokesman at the Central Sulawesi police, said 
police bomb squads had arrived at the village of Kasiguncu, about 10 kilometers 
(6 miles) north of the district town of Poso to investigate.
 
Communal tensions have risen in the region since the executions last month of 
three Roman Catholic men convicted of leading a militia that carried out 
attacks in Sulawesi in 2000, including an assault on an Islamic school that left 
at least 70 dead.
 
Human rights groups allege their trial was unfair and suspect religion played 
a role in the sentencing. Few Muslims were punished for the four years of 
unrest, and none to more than 15 years in prison.
 
Indonesia is a secular nation with the world's largest number of Muslims, 
about 190 million. In Sulawesi and several parts of the country's east, Christian 
and Muslim populations are roughly equal.
 
Poso, about 1,600 kilometers (1,000 miles) northeast of the capital Jakarta 
was the center of fierce battles between Muslims and Christians in 2001 and 
2002 that killed about 1,000 people.
 
------------------------------------------
Joyo Indonesia News Service
------------------------------------------