Achmad Sukarsono, Jakarta – Tensions flared anew between Muslims and Christians in Indonesia's troubled region of Central Sulawesi after one person was found dead and three people were reported missing over the weekend, police said on Monday.
The latest incidents in the Poso regency of Central Sulawesi followed the death last week of Lorenzo Taddei, an Italian tourist shot dead by unidentified gunmen when his bus passed through rugged terrain near the Christian enclave of Tentena.
Clashes since late 1998 between Christians living in Poso's lakeside hills and Muslims near the seaside have killed 2,000 people until a December truce put an end to the worst of the violence.
"Two locals are missing and a policeman wearing civilian dress has not returned yet," Central Sulawesi police spokesman Agus Sugiyanto told Reuters by phone from the provincial capital of Palu, some 1,650 kilometres northeast of Jakarta.
"These incidents have made communities that have been reconciling tense again. There have been no direct clashes yet, but suspicions from both sides are in the air," he said.
Officials in Poso city, some 100 kilometres southeast of Central Sulawesi's provincial capital, Palu, told Reuters a body with bullet wounds had been found in one of the region's many hamlets but further information was not available. The incidents coincided with two days of talks in Palu between Muslim and Christian leaders who signed the truce nine months ago.
In a recent interview with Reuters, the main architect of the agreement, chief social welfare minister Jusuf Kalla, said the worst of violence was over in Poso, but armed groups were still marauding in the area.
"There is no more conflict among the people, but there are small terror groups ... They explode bombs one day and fire shots on another," he said, adding that the perpetrators were suspected to be Indonesians from outside the troubled region.
Local media reported on Monday that National Police Chief Da'i Bachtiar, who had been inspecting the troubled area, asked for more troops to be deployed there. National Police spokesman Saleh Saaf, who is part of Bachtiar's Central Sulawesi tour, said additional troops had been sent and the number could rise.
"We've added one battalion from TNI [military] and two companies from the police two days ago. The overall forces [in Poso] can reach up to 5,000 if needed," he said.
Around 2,000 troops were previously assigned to keep the lid on Poso's simmering violence. Sporadic violence has rocked Poso since the number of troops was gradually halved to that level in recent months.
More than 85 percent of Indonesia's population is Islam, but in some eastern areas of the archipelago Christians match Muslims in roughly equal numbers.
Ethnic tensions and separatist revolts have rocked Indonesia in recent years, as the country seeks to cope with major economic problems and make a transition to democracy after the authoritarian 32-year rule of former president Suharto.