🇮🇩 Four dead in Central Sulawesi attack

Hello friends,

A heavy but important one here from Indonesia to start the week. There’s still a lot we don’t know about the violence in Central Sulawesi over the weekend so while we wait for more information, get caught up to date here.

See you later in the week,Erin Cook

Four residents of the Lembantongoa village in Sigi district, Central Sulawesi, were brutally killed Friday in an attack blamed on the East Indonesia Mujahiddin (MIT). According to reports, militants targeted a local Christian venue and homes in the area with two people beheaded and two killed from burns after properties were set alight. 

To be explicitly clear at this stage, which is Monday afternoon in Canberra, we don’t know for certain that it is an act of terror and/or that it is religiously motivated and/or committed by the MIT. But this is where we’re at. 

Military leader Brig. Gen. Farid Makruf from Poso said the attacks were not religiously motivated and affected Christian and non-Christians alike. “The event had nothing to do with SARA [ethnicity, religion and race]. According to witness statements, it was an effort by the MIT to fulfil their [goals] and show their existence,” he said in a statement reported by the Jakarta Post. 

The Salvation Army on Saturday announced the victims were a part of the organisation. "We find the news from Lembantongoa greatly disturbing. Our hearts go out to our people who have been victims of evil and to the families of those whose faith has caused such harm. I call upon all Salvationists to pray for each person who has been affected, for the continuing witness of our people, and for healing in the communities," Brian Peddle, international leader of The Salvation Army, said, as reported by the Jakarta Globe. 

Salvation Army Palu head Erik A. Kape has pushed back against reports that of the buildings destroyed in the attack, none were a church. "I was a little bit disappointed that it was described [in the news] as a residential house used as a church. That was wrong. I can assure you that it was a church because I was the one who officiated it last Christmas,” he said, again reported by JG. 

This sort of basic confusion underlines how little we still know about what exactly happened on the weekend. Personally, this is a very important subject which has a deep history that is always best left to the experts and thus we’ll revisit deeper later in the week.

That said, we do know quite a bit about MIT. We spoke about the group a bit all the way back in 2016 when leader Santoso was killed in the long-running battle between security forces and the group in Poso. MIT has close connections with Indonesian fighters in the Levant and is closely aligned with the Islamic State. 

It’s been a busy year for the group with small scale attacks allegedly on-going even as the country’s attention turns to the pandemic. The group has been blamed for a string of attacks on farmers throughout the year in which farmers have been found gruesomely killed. 

“We are still investigating MIT’s motive for killing Papa Angga. What is known from previous cases is MIT killed locals, especially farmers, because they were accused of helping police,” provincial police spokesman Didik Supranoto said as reported by Benar back in April after the slaying of farmer Papa Angga. 

While MIT is yet to claim any responsibility for the attack, authorities appear to be convinced. “We reached the conclusion that they (the attackers) were from MIT after showing pictures of its members to relatives of the victims” who bore witness, Al Jazeera reports via agencies. 

If it does prove to be MIT it would be the largest attack from the organisation since the slaying of Santoso, says Sidney Jones. "Through the attack ... they want to show that police efforts to arrest and kill members of the group did not have any effect on" operations, she said as reported by agencies. 

How’s this hideous par, that I had no idea about: 

We’ll be back on this when more information is confirmed and the smarties get their analysis out. 

Further reading:

• Is the East Indonesia Mujahideen a Threat to Indonesia? (The Diplomat)