Bill Guerin – A key Indonesian Christian leader working for an end to the violence in the Spice Islands (Malukus) is reported to have been poisoned while in police custody in Palu, the capital of his native province of Central Sulawesi.

Reverend Rinaldy Damanik, 43, head of the Crisis Center of Central Sulawesi and leader of the Poso region Christian Synod, was stopped by police last August 1 in Peleru, Sulawesi. Police reportedly found 14 home-made guns and ammunition in the car Damanik was traveling in.

Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) this week cited medical reports that indicate an attempt was made to kill Damanik with insect poison in his food on December 26, three days after police moved him to Palu without telling his lawyers or family. Amid increasing concerns for his safety, he has now been moved to the custody of the Central Sulawesi High Court.

Damanik has disputed the police version of the event last August, saying that when they allegedly found the weapons, he was some 50 meters away and had only read about the weapons in press reports quoting police. Damanik suggested that the police planted weapons in his car so they could detain him because of his past criticism of police conduct in the province.

Nonetheless, the pastor was eventually arrested and detained on August 22, though three attempts to get him before judges in the local High Court have failed, as police have not produced sufficient evidence to substantiate their allegations.

Damanik has been a key supporter of the reconciliation process between Christians and Muslims and has

Lasting peace in the Malukus, where some 9,000 people have perished and three years of bloody combat has spawned more than half a million refugees, is crucial to rebuilding the shattered islands and to strengthening religious tolerance in the rest of the country.

Asia Times Online Wars and enemies of the state (Aug 24, '02) been an outspoken critic of the police and government's perceived lack of commitment to stop the violence in the region. His supporters see the arrest as a bid to silence him and appease Poso extremists, who, with influential supporters in both the government and the military, are thought to be intent on sabotaging the fragile peace process.

The Crisis Center of the Churches in North and Central Sulawesi says there is evidence that witness testimony against Damanik was obtained using torture. His lawyers have been refused access to the case evidence, unusual even in Indonesia, and he has been refused bail because of dubious prosecution allegations of witness tampering.

Damanik was charged with violating an emergency law that prohibits owning or controlling weapons or ammunition without permission. If found guilty he could face up to 12 years in prison or even the death penalty, though no date for a trial has been set.

Two other Indonesian pastors are languishing in a Sulawesi prison. In 1998 Reverend Robert Martinus, then 42, and Reverend Yanwardi Koto, 36, were sentenced to six years and seven years respectively on charges of kidnapping, rape and forced conversion of a Muslim girl.

Damanik is a different breed altogether. He was a signatory of the state-sponsored agreement in December 2001, the Malino Peace Accord that ended more than two years of intermittent clashes between Muslims and Christians in the Poso area. Some 500-1,000 people have been killed and tens of thousands left homeless as a result of clashes between Muslims and Christians in Poso.

After this pact Damanik was one of those tasked with informing the international community of attacks and human-rights violations in the area.

When he was stopped by the police in August he had been coming to the aid of Christians who had been attacked by what he claimed was an estimated 60 Islamic militants who used automatic weapons. The attack came just hours after delegates from Poso concluded a second round of government-sponsored peace talks in Palu.

These were part of a series that followed the Malino pact. Several months of calm had ensued and there were genuine hopes of a lasting settlement.

Unfortunately the militant Laskar Jihad, which unilaterally disbanded shortly after the Bali bombings last October 12, rejected the peace pact.

Last April, violence flared up in Ambon with Laskar Jihad storm troopers waging mini-wars on the Christian community, and in July further attacks on villages threatened to destabilize the situation seriously.

An Italian tourist, Lorenzo Taddei, 34, was killed when unidentified gunmen opened fire on the bus he was traveling on. Four Indonesian passengers were also hurt in the incident.

Finally, in August, came the attack that killed five villagers in Poso district and which resulted in the pastor coming under police investigation. Five churches were burned and hundreds of houses destroyed in the violence that sparked immediate fears of a further escalation of the violence that has plagued Poso since religious hostilities erupted in December 1998.

The wave of incidents came in the wake of a seemingly odd statement from Jakarta that a small group of the army's Special Forces (Kopassus) had been sent to the area to search for alleged foreign forces reportedly sighted by local residents.

In the course of the Bali investigation it was found that some foreigners had indeed been training at Islamic "terror" camps in Sulawesi. Though there was no suggestion that they had ever attacked local Christians, it was noted that al-Qaeda had established a training camp in Indonesia and was assisting jihad fighters in Maluku and Central Sulawesi. Even Christians were said to have run training camps in Sulawesi.

To suggestions that the militant Laskar Jihad had been responsible for the latest round of violence, Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare Jusuf Kalla, who has been an earnest and genuine player in the path to peace, simply said at the time: "It is not their style."

Kalla, who chaired the peace talks, spoke with some authority as a native of the region, but nonetheless, his dismissal of militants' involvement flew in the face of established fact.

On April 26, the Laskar Jihad commander Jaffar Umar Thalib told several thousand worshippers at the Alfatah Mosque in Ambon, "Our ... focus now must be preparing for war."

Thirty-six hours later, 13 people, including two babies, lay dead in nearby Soya village where some 30 Christian homes were razed to the ground and the Protestant church left in ruins. Survivors of the Soya attack recounted hearing the assailants, who wore face masks, speaking in Javanese and shouting "Allah Akbar" (God is Great).

A week later Thalib, in a radio broadcast, told Muslims to "write out their wills ... get out all your weapons ... [and] fight against them [the Christians] to the last drop of blood". He was arrested a day later and charged on suspicion of sowing religious hatred but later released to await trial.

During his subsequent trial in Jakarta last month, prosecutors recommended only a one-year sentence on charges of inciting violence.

Church and aid groups believe the Sulawesi peace process remains balanced on a knife-edge and Damanik's case will be pivotal in charting the eventual path to peace.

The Crisis Center says that by comparison with the Thalib case, the decision to proceed with Damanik's trial is a travesty of justice and they are pressing the international community to urge Jakarta to intervene before tensions in the area escalate. Mona Saroinsong, the Crisis Center coordinator, warns that "if Muslims and Christians at the grassroots see injustice done, it will seriously damage the peace process and the government's credibility".

On the other hand, she adds: "If the national government ensures that the case is run fairly, it will restore both communities' faith in the government's commitment to the peace process."

Mona Saroinsong says the police have tried to get Damanik to name names and may use his case as an excuse to arrest other Christians whom they will harass to try to implicate Damanik, as they have no real evidence.

The Crisis Center is calling on the international community to urge Jakarta to investigate the actions of "corrupt and irresponsible regional authorities" and to ensure the trial is run fairly and justly according to the law with no pressure on the court to find Damanik guilty.

Another pastor, Reverend Jacky Manuputty, who has been a witness to earlier attacks and was one of the delegates in the Malino peace talks, sums up what is at stake and why Jakarta needs to act.

Saying that most Muslims and Christians in the Malukus know the violence must stop so they can provide a future for the next generation, Manuputty concludes, "We have to believe that the Malino agreement is still holding because we have no choice. It has to succeed, otherwise the Malukus are finished. We are begging the government to do their job and to implement the law-enforcement and security provisions which they agreed to."