Indonesian Executions Cause Violent Protests
Mort Karman - All Headline News Staff Reporter Palu,Indonesia (AHN) - Violence erupted in an area of Indonesia where Muslim-Christian battles have raged in the past and where religous tensions have been high. Three Christian men who had been tried and found guilty of instigating the 2000 rioting in Central Sulawesi which resulted in more than 1,000 deaths before police and the army were able to regain order were executed early Friday morning. The trio, Fabianus Tibo, Marianus Riwu and Dominggus Silva, had been tried and sentenced to death in 2001. They were found guilty of leading a mob in an attack in the provience which caused the death of more then 200 people in Christian-Muslim fighting. Christian-Muslim gang rivalry is believed to be the cause of the clashes, which expanded from Sulawesi and resulted in the additional deaths. Thousands of Christians protested in Silva's hometown of Atambua in West Timor, where demonstrators broke into a jail and freed 200 prisoners. The protesters threw stones and burned the home of the prosecutor who had tried the case, local police said. Five people were injured in the clash, including two policemen. Bishop Joseph Suwatan, whose diocese covers North and Central Sulawes, urged the people to be calm. On the island of Flores, the executed men's birthplace, in East Nusatenggara Province, machete wielding youths terrorised residents and tore apart |
