timdog is right, it's not just Muslims killing Christians but also the other way around, especially in the beginning of the conflict.
While full scale war and mass killings are a thing of the past now, there still are elements in the area active trying to provoke and stir up the deep scarred emotions of the local people from both sides. These elements are partly from outside the area and are linked with the Jemaah Islamiya and Laskar Jihad.
A couple of years ago An Italian guy was shot dead in the Poso area while traveling on a local bus. Not clear if he was a deliberate target, or caught in the crossfire.
Last year when I was in Central Sulawesi (East coast) I happened to stay in the same hotel with a group of high police officers in charge of Central Sulawesi who were there to attend a meeting. I've spoken to the one in charge of the conflicted area who told me that if I had plans going to Poso and surroundings to be carefull and give him a ring first. According to him the main reason why it has been relatively 'safe' over the last few years was the presence of a LOT of police and militairy who crack down any sign of unrest.
In January this year the local police raided an armed Laskar Jihad group nearby Poso which ended in a dramatic shootout with 14 people killed including a policeman, 20 captured, while over 50 suspected militants managed to flee into the surrounding jungle.
So is it safe? I would say that there's a lot more to see in Sulawesi than just Poso and surroundings.
Not mentioned before, but imo a serious possibility is the fact that a middle eastern looking person with an Arabic name might be seen as 'suspicious' by both the local Christians and the police.
A few day's ago I got a sms from friends in Ambon, Maluku saying that the situation there was quite tensed again after a few recent bombings and attempted bombings, and the militairy doing weapon searches around town again.
So, even if conflicted area's like Poso and Ambon are relatively safe compared to some years ago, some incidental violence still might flare up as long as provocateurs are still there.
I would say that the risk of just travelling through the Poso area without stopping is very very low. In the past the Muslim bus companies in Palu took detours around certain areas of Poso to avoid going through Christian areas. On the trip from Palu to Ampana I remember one road they took which was right down near the coast --- it was only 1 lane and very narrow. After the detour they went back to the main road just east of Poso, and continued on to Ampana.
Ibudewi is right, it is Christians who are most at risk in Central Sulawesi, although the risk is quite minor, and there is certainly nothing "absolutely unacceptable" about saying so, it's a simple fact.
Sorry Patung, but I would beg to differ. Christians are at risk from Muslims there; Muslims are at risk from Christians. Many have been killed on both sides, many attrocities have been carried out by both sides. What is ABSOLUTELY UNACCEPTABLE in a global climate where Muslims are forever demonised is to even allow the inference that the Poso situation is about Christians being victimised and persecuted by the global bete noire of Islamic fanaticism. The Poso conflict has bubbled on for almost a decade; outside forces have meddled in it; non-local Islamist organisations have certainly dabbled in it and probably exacerbated it, but at its heart it is about two way violence from both sides, and apportioning unequal blame is unreasonable. In particular making unqualified, unelaborated comments like <blockquote>Quote
<hr>It is local Christians who seem to be most at risk in these areas, eg, those poor school girls who were beheaded a few years back<hr></blockquote> will certainly leave the uninitiated with the impression in the global currency of imagry and prejudice of peacable Christians, somehow closer to "us", cowering in terror as the deranged hordes of international Islamic evil swoop with machetes.... the truth is that in Poso this image does exist, as does a perfect mirror where the machetes (and grenades and rifles and bombs) are in the hands of Christians too. THAT is what I'm complaining about.
<blockquote>Quote
<hr>It is local Christians who seem to be most at risk in these areas, eg, those poor school girls who were beheaded a few years back<hr></blockquote>
Note the present tense, she is talking about the current situation which is of course what the OP is interested in because he wants to go to Poso. She is correct. If you think she is wrong please provide reasons/evidence.
<blockquote>Quote
<hr>eg, those poor school girlswho WERE beheaded A FEW YEARS BACK<hr></blockquote>
...I'm an English teacher; I know about tenses, and i fear you are mistaken. I sense this on the brink of descending into petty bickering and as we are sparring about grammar, I am capable of recognising how silly we are being, so I suggest we draw a close to it. But I maintain my position: the Poso conflict has ebbed and flowed and if the demonic Muslim fanatics have the upper hand in terms of body count at the moment, there certainly have been stages when the bloodthirsty Christians savages were in control of the game. It was the inference I was complaining about. We ought not to continue this ridiculousness; do have the last word if you wish...
Ok I will. Your'e right in a sense, if we go back a few years, say to the signing of the Malino peace treaty in late 2001 then since that time the violence has almost exclusively been committed by Muslims. Prior to that, in at least one of the "hot" periods of fighting between 1998-2001 Christians certainly did their share of killing, beheading, hacking, etc., your'e right. But I suspect youseehim was more interested in recent events.
But the "absolutely unacceptable" and then "ABSOLUTELY UNACCEPTABLE", - I'm sure you can think of more ways of writing it as well - , that's just not on. What you consider to be ABSOLUTELY UNACCEPTABLE is fine for you but others are under no obligation to pay any attention to such intolerance and rudeness.
I was not having a go at all Muslims and I don't think the situation in Poso (in recent times at least) is totally comparable to the situation in Ambon. This is what I was referring to:
Schoolgirl beheading case
And while I acknowledge that there has been violence coming from both sides in the past, it does seem that Christians are mainly the ones copping it now (and there has been some suggestion that the Indonesian Army may have had a hand in this, perhaps as a way of justifying their presence in the area - apparently these kind of things often happen just before troops are scheduled to be deployed out of this area - I'm sure my critics will dismiss this as a conspiracy theory though). Here is some more media commentary on the subject:
"Indonesia is the world's most populous Muslim nation, but Central Sulawesi has a roughly equal number of Muslims and Christians. The province was the scene of a bloody religious war in 2001-2002 that killed around 1000 people from both communities.
At the time, beheadings, burnings and other atrocities were common.
A government-mediated truce succeeded in ending the conflict in early 2002, but there have since been a series of bomb attacks and assassinations of Christians.
These included a blast at a market in Poso, a predominantly Christian town, that killed 22 people in May.
Christian leaders have repeatedly accused the authorities in Jakarta of not doing enough to find the perpetrators and bring them to justice" (source: The Australian, 29 October 2005).
I have studied Indonesian (both language and politics) for many years and lived and worked in Indonesia (with people from all over the archipelago, most of whom were Muslim) for a while during the 1990s and visited more recently. I have also been to Poso and have been following the situation there in the media for almost 10 years and still maintain that the majority of these type of acts IN RECENT YEARS have been committed against Christians.
And no, I am not Christian myself, nor am I Muslim. I have no particular beef with either group and certainly wasn't suggesting that all Muslims are "demonic ... fanatics" (how could that possibly be concluded from what I wrote???). I realise that there are political forces at work here but unfortunately in this case they have manifested themself in violent acts towards Christian Indonesians. I certainly do think that some of you should come over to the Indonesia Matters website and take the opportunity to discuss this matter with informed Indonesians including plenty of Muslims who are equally horrified about the school girl case, esp the fact that the perpetrators have claimed that they were doing it for religious reasons, which none of us believe for a minute. These are hate crimes and while Christians are the ones copping it in Poso, this kind of thing harms all Indonesians.
I did mean to leave this thread alone, but your reply deserves acknowledgement ibudewi:
I agree with you entirely, and I certainly wasn't making the enormous jump to the conclusion that you held that view of Muslims. However, I did feel the need to take issue and make it clear to anyone casually reading this thread that the situation in Poso is NOT about a peaceable Christian minority behing persecuted and beheaded by the "demonic" Muslims, which could have been the conclusion drawn from your post.
Note that the OP's concerns about travelling through the region rest in part on the fact that he is American, though he reassures himself with his Mid-Eastern appearance, name, and his ability to lie about his nationality: the "demonic Muslims" clearly loom large in the minds of many.
Perhaps I get too worked up by these things, but as a "friend" of the Muslims (no, I am not a Muslim either: I teeter on the border between atheism and agnosticism having been raised in the secular west against a loosely Christian tradition) I cannot stop myself jumping at things like that. Say the words "beheaded, schoolgirls, Poso, Muslims", and very many people, even people who strain away from reactionary prejudice will sigh wearily and say, "Muslims, of course".
That's why I was steamed up. Sorry if I got all pompous.
Incidently I have had a browse through the Indonesia Matters site, and though I don't have a great deal of time for all this internet lark at the moment, in a few months I'm crawling reluctantly back to the UK for another year of study (ahhh! Studenthood - all the time in the world for the internet!) so I'll perhaps come and join you then...
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