Letter from Poso

THE violence in Poso, Central Sulawesi happened again on the beginning of the year 2007. The incident happened early in the morning until later in the afternoon on January 22nd 2007 in a small village called Gebang Rejo, Poso Kota, capital of Poso District. The police executed the operation by collaborating with the force from Indonesian Police Head Quarter (Mabes Polri) and the Regional Police in Central Sulawesi. The operation was held in the middle of crowded citizens’ housings. As a result, more than 20 civilians were arrested, injured, and even other thirteen citizens were killed. They were mostly killed by the police’s gunshots as they attacked the civilians in Tanah Runtuh. One of the police who was under the operation control (BKO) from Kelapa Dua unit also became a victim as the armed civilians retaliated from Gebang Rejo.

If people were still tortured, injured and killed in Poso, then what exactly happened there? If police kept being sent, TNI backed them up, Intel kept exchanging codes, the budget to handle the conflict kept being increased, votes for local representatives in district and province were held, then why does violence still haunt the citizens? Human Security still becomes a serious issue in Tanah Sintuwu Maroso. There are many ways to answer those questions, and many people stated their opinion. One thing should be underline that people should be able to answer the question to why do violence in Poso kept happening.

Independent Journalist Alliance (AJI) in Palu, Central Sulawesi, a part of the Working Group for Peace (Kelompok Kerja untuk Perdamaian) in Poso, has searched for journalistic facts concerning the incident in January 22nd 2007.

This was supposed to reveal what actually caused the series of incidents in Poso. The report was not meant to strengthen the religious based violence in Poso or any other anti justice acts. On the contrary, it was supposed to stop the violence and strengthen the peace process in Poso.

Working Group for Peace in Poso is a network organization established in December 2005 by the advocate network in Poso, Palu and Jakarta, which concerned on the process of peace in Poso. It was motivated with professional enthusiasm in working and strong beliefs in humanitarian principles.

A journalist should be able to cover both sides of the story, although it is not necessary to do it in one narration of text. The context could be extended into one long narration. In this case it is Poso. The coverage about Poso should be in good balance. This could be appreciated by the media by showing the other version of Poso. The coverage should not only be based on the police’s comprehension of security and safety. This was very important in order to answer the question why series of violence kept happening in Poso, other than about security, reinforcements, humanitarian budget corruption, and other stories which described the heroic acts of state’s authorities.

Have the wide society; both national and international understood the process of militarization in Tanah Runtuh since the New Order (Orde Baru)? Or have they known the trauma felt by children in Gebang Rejo? Did the terrorist actions in Poso was really connected with Jamaah Islamiyah or Al Qaeda who were known wide world?

The conflict and violence in Poso has been happening since December 1998. The death toll reached thousands of people. Ethno religious violence, violence done by authorities (TNI/Polri), government negligence of ten thousands of citizens who were forced to evacuate, decreasing of health security and services for mothers and children, and unemployment. The government also did not pay enough attention to recover the citizens’ rights to bring their cases to court concerning the conflict. Several actions that were executed by the governments were not in maximum performance; they appeared to be executed half hearted, and corruption of the humanitarian fund which was supposed to pay for the recovery of citizens in Poso grew even bigger. Instead, currently, they were ridiculed by the citizens in Poso because they have failed to maintain their dignity in the eyes of those who committed violence.

It is true that since 2002, assaults by one community to the other no longer happened. However, a new M/O appeared; Guns were shots and bombs were blasted mysteriously. How did the method of violence and targets change in Poso? How can it be possible to committed new act of violence in Poso? It turned out all of this happened because of unfinished business which was not resolved in Malino Declaration Program last year 2001.

The peace program oriented more on security which needed more police force or TNI. Nowadays, seeing guns were no longer frightening for citizens in Poso. Police and TNI wandered around the society carrying guns. Meanwhile the citizens still live in uncertainty. Airports and several other locations in Tentena were still utilized as shelters for citizens. Houses in Poso were still left unattended by some of the citizens. Or, the burnt ones still remain as artifacts since conflicts from 1998 to 2001.

The program to restructure the humanity was not conducted properly, professionally, transparently and whole heartedly. Failure to place people as human in Poso has turned grief to anger. Like what happened to Basri a guy whose name was recently mentioned, he used to be an ordinary guy who played Genesis songs. The conflict and the way it was resolved has made him committed ways that were out of lines. Basri lost more than 26 members in his family because of the conflict. But how did the government handle this and what did they do to the person who killed Basri’s family and others whose family was also killed? Obviously Basri’s name is now in one of the wanted people list. In the incident on January 22nd 2007, again, two of Basri’s brothers became victims and were killed during the police operation that day.

And there was another story concerning the ducklings in Gebang Rejo. The youngsters who got recruited were the ones whose family was massacred during the conflict. Judging by the age, these youngsters who became the members of Anak Bebek were supposed to live like other teenagers their age; after finished reading the Al Quran, they should be heading home and discussed about the England football leagues or about the latest music from famous bands in Indonesia. Once again on the contrary, they have to live a different live. They were not educated with doctrines about doing Jihad as one of the necessities to go to heaven. Yet they were given doctrines on how the government did not enforce the law. The massacre in Walisongo Pesantren was one of the concrete prove of how the government has failed to manage the country.

Is it appropriate to say that violence always come from those who wanted to revenge and did not reach the reconciliation program in Poso? The answer is no, it is not appropriate. The incident on January 22nd 2007 proved that authorities were also involved directly or indirectly in the act of violence in Poso, especially the police.

Directly, it can be seen through the amount of people who became victims other than the ones in the DPO who were mentioned as the ones responsible for the act of violence in Poso from 2002 to 2006. The image could even be captured from the behavior of Kapolda Brigjen Badrodin Haiti who was anxious because only hours after the operations on January 22nd 2007 was executed eight people have died. But later he denied that there was gross violation of human rights concerning the civilians attacking, shooting, torturing and false arresting.

The operation executed by the Polri on January 22nd 2007 was not an appropriate way to enforce the law. It was not only measured from the capacity of the attack that was utilized, but also measured from the DPO that instantly lost two of their missiles (Jantung Pisang). The comment came from Iin, a citizen of Gebang Rejo, who also knew the DPO well. Iin stated that the police could also have videos of DPO gathering around and doing activities.

If these people have the potential to commit massive destruction, judging from their armories, and could be detected, why did Polri choose to sit still and conducted the operation on an unrevealed date? Why did the police let the civilians be within the attack? Why did not the police prepare specific protection for the civilians? And how did the operation also attack house that were not even lived by the DPOs?

In the attack to Gebang Rejo, children were depressed by the sound of shotguns, situations got hectic, and people bared the risk to be victims. Teachers were forced to calm their students at school. Not to mention the citizens whose houses were poured with bullets, and stripped searched. It was enough for the police to just come and apologized and promised to replace their loss after the incident. This issue added the list of problems in Poso that needed to be resolved, even far more serious than the ones that already existed; system needs to be restored, conflict needs to be resolved by the government and the authorities in this country.

Besides the civilians, humanitarian workers such as journalists and hospital employees also suffered similar threats and violence in conducting their job, whereas information and health services are very important to be obtained during conflict especially like the ones in Poso. They need guarantee that they will be able to do their job freely.

Violence that still covered areas in Poso happened continuously from time to time and has formed a spiral. Started from communal violence (based on ethno religious sentiment) and continued with the violence committed by Polri and TNI who based their actions on security, even though their act was not supported with accountability and implementation of law supremacies of non discrimination principal. The same thing also happened in the country level; almost no one was convicted with their crime.

These were the issues that could easily be utilized by certain groups to start a new commitment of violence. The government was considered not to side with humanity and justice. Program by program, operations by operations, were only projects formulated by the elites that did not touch the real needs of the society in Poso, where security can not be measured by the amounts of posts build within the citizens housings. Security should be measured in holistic and should be able to touch the individuals in Poso directly.

They needed economic security such as money, food supplies, and appropriate housings; Social security, such as education, including anti discrimination and peace education.

Education should not always be arranged nationally which sometimes causes confusion. Local content and context should be accommodated. The citizens in Poso also needed work security, especially the utilization of reintegration program for former members of conflict and family of the victims. They also need health security; both mentally and physically. They need law security in the form of non discrimination law enforcement especially for certain people who were considered to be responsible, and guarantee to return the civilians’ and conflict victims’ civil assets. This is why the civilians’ suggestion to form a Fact Finding Team which occurred after the Tentena Bombing in 2005 should be restored.

The actions mentioned above should be supported with gradual retreat of police and TNI force and Intel in Poso.

One of the easiest ways to support the hopes above is by opening as much source of information as possible to the society. This is important in order to inform and educate them with civilian’s rights and peace. Psychologically, this is also potential to regain citizen’s trust because they have new space to interact, and also space for them to access security policies and reconciliation facilitated by the government. This is important in order to nurture the reconciliation; not only for the citizens in Poso but also for the government and authorities.

The actions above should be conducted in integration and gradually. That is why it is important to make plans accurately, professionally and involved the society in Poso. It also requires political courage and willing from the government. On the other hand, the government’s lack of courage and willing would only wound the society even more and will initiate possibilities for new conflict to happen in Poso. This is why violence was still committed in Poso. So, it was not Osama bin Laden, not Ustadz Adnan Arsal, not Priest Rinaldy Damanik, or anybody else!

Jakarta/Palu/Poso, 26 March 2007.***

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