A slaughter of christians by Muslims is about to take place in Indonesia. Here is the information....
As of today, the word from Tentena at 21:00 (8:00 A.M. EST) is that the Muslim militia is advancing on Tentena. The villages and towns of Tangkura, Sangginora, Dewua have fallen and now Sulewana is under attack and maybe has already fallen. There is little hope for the defenseless Christians of Tentena once the Jihad reach this city, their primary objective. More than 63,000 Christians reside in Tentena, where more than 28,000 are refugees from villages already attacked by the Jihad.
Campaign of Terrorism in Indonesia
Terrorism and Turmoil in Poso
The following is a report by an ICC special envoy to Poso, Central Sulawesi, Indonesia on November 18-22 on a fact-finding mission and to deliver aid to the beleaguered Christians under attack by Jihad terrorists.
persecution.org
OUR PURPOSE: "Remembering those ill-treated" Hebrews 13:3
Our decision to travel to the Jihad conflict zone of Central Sulawesi was not made in haste, but instead with much prayer and consideration. Many well-intentioned friends had suggested that we were crazy to even consider the idea at all. The U.S. State Department advisory reports had strongly urged Americans to stay out of Indonesia, which came as no surprise to us. Nevertheless, one of my primary reasons for founding International Christian Concern was for the very reason that too often missionaries abandon Christians living in areas where conflicts arise, resulting in our persecuted brothers and sisters feeling abandoned and neglected. It is hard to relay the suffering within our body (I Corinthians 12:26) if we can't at least touch that part of the body at their time of greatest need. Therefore, we felt compelled to go.
We left our somewhat secure lodging in Manado, North Sulawesi, on November 18th and flew to Palu, the capital of Central Sulawesi. On our first day in Central Sulawesi, we traveled 3 hours by car to the Napu Valley to the villages of Wanga and Siliwanga where 20 families (110 people) have resettled following Jihad attacks on their villages. As we talked with some of the 50 recent arrivals, we learned more about the current dangers in the Poso area. The road from Palu to Poso and Tentena has been completely taken over by the Jihad.
The refugees, having fled with only the clothes on their backs, displayed a resolute spirit. In recent months, simple wooden homes were erected for the 20 families on small plots of land donated by the local government, enabling them to become somewhat self-reliant. After providing some money to help the refugee families, and spending some time eating and praying with them, we drove the three hours back to Palu.
A PATH OF DESTRUCTION
The next morning we set out toward Poso and Tentena after making the final arrangements with our military escorts that would be traveling with us. We first stopped in Palu to meet with Chief of Police for Intelligence for Central Sulawesi, R. Erold. He provided two Muslim guards to travel with us as part of the security convoy that would be accompanying us to Tentena and back. In addition to the two Muslim guards, we were provided six police guards by Major Victor Batara of the National Police Force. With four vehicles in our convoy, we would be driving through hostile territory where the Jihad warriors have been attacking and destroying Christian villages. On the return trip from Tentena to Palu, Major Batara was also part of our convoy. A security escort is essential for travel in the Poso region, for we would be driving through hostile territory where the Jihad warriors have been attacking and destroying Christian villages and pulling Christians from vehicles traveling the same route, killing some of them.
Our eight-man escort was comprised of members of what is called "BRIMOB," short for Mobile Brigade. BRIMOB is Indonesia's special forces unit which is used primarily for responding to civil crisis situations. The partially armed escort provided us with somewhat of a level of security, but it likely would provide little protection if we were to come under attack by the Jihad. The Poso area, after all, has become a breeding ground for thousands of Jihad terrorists.
The tension in the air seemed more pronounced once we reached Poso. The population of Poso had dropped from over 30,000 to about 5,000 because of the attacks by Muslim Jihad terrorists that began in December 1998. We were told that at least 1,000 members of the Laskar Jihad were now in Poso and that no Christians remained, for they all had been forced to flee at the risk of being killed.
When we stopped to get fuel in Poso, we saw several Muslim men toting automatic weapons. We anxiously waited for our police escorts to finish fueling the vehicles while we stayed hidden behind the tinted windows of our vehicle in order to not draw attention to ourselves. Our guards said that the station was blockaded and that Christians were not allowed to purchase fuel. All fuel - gasoline, kerosene, diesel etc. - was forbidden to be delivered to Tentena, for an embargo had been put in place by the Jihad. The Jihad had threatened the officials of the Petrofina Oil Company that they would be killed if they delivered any more fuel supplies to Tentena. Even though the community in Tentena had paid for three tanker loads of fuel, the Petrofina officials were refusing to deliver the fuel for fear of their lives. Major Batara warned Petrofina that he could no longer provide protection for the fuel storage tanks in Poso if fuel that had already been paid for was not delivered to Tentena. The blockade of fuel to Tentena has caused a great hardship to the Christian community with the cost of fuel, including cooking fuel, having risen 300% in recent months. There are further concerns that the Laskar Jihad will cut off other needed basic supplies.
In recent weeks, the same route we were traveling had been attacked several times and Christians were dragged from vehicles and killed. One 15-year-old boy had been traveling in a bus with his mother when a band of Jihad warriors stopped the bus and dragged him into the jungle, never to be seen again. Unknown to us, just four miles from where we were passing the village of Kasiguncu, a man was shot and killed. Also, ahead of us a gun battle was raging across the road as the Jihad were trying to cross a strategic bridge in Lembomawo to cross into the Christian village of Ranononcu on the main road to Tentena.
To give further evidence to the danger of traveling in this region, while in Tentena we visited the hospital where we met another victim whose leg was needing to be amputated following wounds he suffered after the bus in which he had been riding came under attack by a band of Jihad terrorists.
The next three hours of driving would be equally as tense. We drove through village after village and witnessed the carnage left in the wake of the nighttime raids of the Laskar Jihad. A few Muslim families had appeared to have taken up residency in the least damaged homes that once belonged to Christian families. Otherwise, almost every home in the once Christian villages had been burned to the ground or severely damaged. As we passed through one village after another we saw the visible burned-out remains of homes, churches and businesses. One could only imagine the once vibrant communities that had previously existed.
As we entered the war zone we were struck by the number of Jihad posts we saw along the road. Some blatantly displayed signs that proclaimed the name of the terrorist organization "Laskar Jihad," with each displaying the Jihad flag, a black flag with Arabic writing on it. Each Jihad post had posters of Osama Bin Laden, some with writing underneath his picture saying "THIS IS OUR LEADER." Young Muslim men, most were armed, guarded these posts to inspect passing vehicles to see if they were occupied by Christians. Identity papers were being searched and if you were a Christian, then you would be in danger of summary execution. The fact that we were in a military convoy may have prevented us from being stopped by the Jihad. What once were military posts along the route were now empty. We were told that just two months earlier there had been a high presence of military at all of the guard posts - and no Jihad posts. Their presence now served as a clear reminder of the present danger and as to who is now in control of these villages. The military had subsequently been withdrawn from nearly all Christian villages and road-side security posts.
Along the roadside we also witnessed the remains of the destruction to the Christian villages that had been recently destroyed during the months of October and November 2001, adding to the thousands of homes along the road that were destroyed in the months of May and June 2000. We saw the horrific destruction levied against entire Christian communities along the 30 miles we traveled of the 70-mile-long path of destruction that lies north of Tentena. Along this path of destruction we observed hundreds of homes, churches, and businesses that have been burned to the ground. Muslim communities we passed through displayed little or no destruction.
As we drew closer to the town of Tentena we saw evidence of the increase in the number of refugees who have fled from the path of the advancing Jihad. In the village of Pandiri there were 843 new refugees representing a total of 193 families from the village of Malitu, which was destroyed on October 31, 2001. It was eerie how the roads and villages were absolutely deserted.
Rarely did we pass another vehicle on the highway, which serves as the primary trade route between northern and southern Sulawesi. The dramatic increase in the number of attacks on buses and cars traveling between Poso and Tentena has understandably reduced the flow of traffic.
When we reached Tentena we learned from Police Major Batara that he personally had been stopped at a Jihad post while traveling alone and was made to kneel and was frisked, despite the fact that he was in full uniform and was armed. We learned from Major Batara, as well as from others, that currently there are thousands of Jihad terrorists in the surrounding area, with as many as 15,000 Jihad forces in total.
The area of Tentena consists of five counties that are under the security protection of the BRIMOB under the leadership of Major Batara. He oversees one of four districts within Central Sulawesi. The population of the Tentena area consists of about 35,000 local residents in addition to about 28,000 refugees from other areas in Central Sulawesi that have come under attack by the Laskar Jihad forces. Tentena is a landlocked area cut off by the Laskar Jihad from access to the coast and major transportation routes. It has besen rumored that the Laskar Jihad are threatening the entire Poso region with a "Bloody Christmas." The government authorities in Palu had given orders for all the rifles of the Tentena police to be returned to the National Police headquarters in order to "prevent further escalation in the already tense conflict." At present there are only 35 policemen with three rifles who are providing security for the 63,000 Christians living in the Poso region. There was no indication that the government has been willing to provide additional military security to safeguard the Christian communities. The police have yet to receive promised shipments of trucks and communication equipment. We learned from Major Batara that there were only four radios for the entire police force. There had been 14 radios until higher officials in Palu ordered them taken away.
The ICC team visited the Crisis Center in Tentena, meeting with Yan Patris Binela, head of the division for Law and Advocacy, and Noldy Tacoh, General Secretary. We were told that on November 12 a large contingent of Jihad warriors attempted to cross the river in Central Sulawesi to capture several small villages, but were prevented from doing so by the villagers who had made a coordinated effort to stop the Jihad from advancing.
The rest of the report can be read by accessing the link... |
