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Sulawesi
Impacts on Human Security |
Intercommunal Violence
An approximate tally of deaths from the religious violence over the past three years is the loss of 1,500 Muslims and 40 Christians. The waves of fighting which have erupted in Poso and the surrounding area have been increasingly brutal. Police Chief Djasman Baso Opu has stated that, “What the attackers did is totally cruel and worse then what was committed during the (1965) communist abortive coup.”
The attacks have been indiscriminate in their focus. Children, women, and men have all been subject to the slaughtering. As one survivor explained, the attackers methodically placed victims in rows, slicing heads and body parts, and pushing the bodies into shallow graves and the Poso River. The number of dead continues to rise as authorities discover hidden burials. In addition to the torture and murders, many refugees have claimed that the attacks also included gratuitous rapes and sexual assaults.
Internally Displaced
Approximately 45,000 people have been displaced by the violence in Central Sulawesi. The town of Poso has become almost completely deserted, with 20% of the homes burned to the ground. During 2000-2001, another 70 refugees in Palu died from overexposure and disease.
As a result of the death sentences given to three Christians for their role in the killings of 2000, fighting flared up again in mid-2001, with another dozen dead as of August. The result was the flight of another 2,500 citizens seeking safety from the ensuing violence.
Refugee camps set up in neighboring areas have been fraught with difficulties. The refugees lack the basic amenities, such as food, medicine, clothing, mattresses, blankets, space, and educational supplies. Disease has been rampant the most prevalent of these being malaria, respiratory tract infections, gastric-intestinal problems, and skin diseases. Camp security is highly inadequate, as there have been a number of reported killings and kidnappings within the camps themselves.
Numerous aid agencies working in Sulawesi have also been affected by the violence. For example, World Vision has had six community development programs in the Poso coastal area, from which over 50 staff members had to be removed in July 2001 because of sporadic clashes. The closed Poso-Palu route has also prevented World Vision staff from drawing funds to support their programs such as installation of clean water pipes and sanitation facilities. (See Relief Web). Nonetheless, these programs have gone forward, as have plans to distribute 716 tons of rice for 72,000 IDPs in the Poso area. Other agencies active in the area include Action by Churches Together (ACT), who helped to evacuate endangered families during the violence in April 2001.
For more information on the current situation of IDPs, see the Norwegian Refugee Council
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