jaguarr
Be Your Own Hero
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Before I post this, I'll say it once: Keep it CIVIL in this thread. I would like for it to not get deleted like the other religion thread. Thanks.
http://www.thestandard.com.hk/news_detail.asp?pp_cat=17&art_id=27934&sid=10061290&con_type=1
Saturday, September 23, 2006
Christian mobs freed hundreds of prisoners, torched cars, and looted Muslim-owned shops across eastern Indonesia after three Roman Catholics were executed Friday for leading a 2000 attack that killed 70 Muslims.On the island of Flores, where the three men were born, machete-wielding youths terrorized residents and police fired warning shots to disperse gangs tearing apart the local parliament building and setting others on fire.
Vice President Jusuf Kalla appealed for calm, saying the deaths of the three men had nothing to do with religion. "It's a matter of law," he said. "If the people resent the law, we are doomed."
Fabianus Tibo, 60, Marinus Riwu, 48, and Dominggus da Silva, 42, were led before a police firing squad just south of Central Sulawesi's provincial capital Palu at 1.45am.
Security was tight in Palu, where violence between Christians and Muslims has left thousands dead in recent years.
The three were to die in August, but the executions were postponed after a papal appeal and mass demonstrations.
"They they were shot in a sitting position with their hands tied," said priest Jimmy Tumbelaka. "Two were blindfolded while Marianus Riwu refused to be blindfolded."
The bodies of Tibo and Riwu were flown to Flores while Silva was buried in Palu, 1,650 kilometers northeast of Jakarta.
A panel of three judges found the men guilty of leading a Christian militia that launched attacks in May 2000 - including a machete and gun assault on an Islamic school.
Rights workers say the trial was a sham and that while it was possible the trio joined in the bloodshed they almost certainly were not the masterminds.
The case has raised tensions in the world's most populous Muslim nation and sparked debate about the role religion played in punishing those who joined in violence that swept Sulawesi from 1998 to 2002, killing more than 1,000 people. Only a handful of Muslims were convicted and none jailed for more than 15 years.
The executions took place despite an appeal last month by Pope Benedict to spare them. A Vatican spokesman said news of their deaths "was very sad and painful."
Palu was largely calm Friday, with thousands of police on guard as some 1,000 mourners packed a church in a requiem mass. "My father begged us not to be angry, not to seek revenge," Tibo's son, Robert, told Christian followers after the morning prayers. "He asked us to forgive those who did this to him. God blesses all of us."
But violence flared in the Sulawesi villages of Tentena and Lage, where Christians rampaged, torching cars and police posts.
Thousands also rallied in the province of East Nusatenggara, home to many Catholics, blocking roads and attacking government buildings. Some 200 inmates escaped after a mob stormed a jail in the town of Atambua.
Although the government insists the three Christians got a fair trial, with 28 witnesses providing testimony, rights workers and legal experts noted that the judiciary is corrupt and susceptible to outside influence. Muslim hardliners gathered at the court for the trial, threatening judges, prosecutors, defense attorneys and witnesses.
Three Islamic militants on death row for the 2002 Bali bombings said they would rather be beheaded than face a firing squad, arguing it is a more humane way to die.
jag
http://www.thestandard.com.hk/news_detail.asp?pp_cat=17&art_id=27934&sid=10061290&con_type=1
Saturday, September 23, 2006
Vice President Jusuf Kalla appealed for calm, saying the deaths of the three men had nothing to do with religion. "It's a matter of law," he said. "If the people resent the law, we are doomed."
Fabianus Tibo, 60, Marinus Riwu, 48, and Dominggus da Silva, 42, were led before a police firing squad just south of Central Sulawesi's provincial capital Palu at 1.45am.
Security was tight in Palu, where violence between Christians and Muslims has left thousands dead in recent years.
The three were to die in August, but the executions were postponed after a papal appeal and mass demonstrations.
"They they were shot in a sitting position with their hands tied," said priest Jimmy Tumbelaka. "Two were blindfolded while Marianus Riwu refused to be blindfolded."
The bodies of Tibo and Riwu were flown to Flores while Silva was buried in Palu, 1,650 kilometers northeast of Jakarta.
A panel of three judges found the men guilty of leading a Christian militia that launched attacks in May 2000 - including a machete and gun assault on an Islamic school.
Rights workers say the trial was a sham and that while it was possible the trio joined in the bloodshed they almost certainly were not the masterminds.
The case has raised tensions in the world's most populous Muslim nation and sparked debate about the role religion played in punishing those who joined in violence that swept Sulawesi from 1998 to 2002, killing more than 1,000 people. Only a handful of Muslims were convicted and none jailed for more than 15 years.
The executions took place despite an appeal last month by Pope Benedict to spare them. A Vatican spokesman said news of their deaths "was very sad and painful."
Palu was largely calm Friday, with thousands of police on guard as some 1,000 mourners packed a church in a requiem mass. "My father begged us not to be angry, not to seek revenge," Tibo's son, Robert, told Christian followers after the morning prayers. "He asked us to forgive those who did this to him. God blesses all of us."
But violence flared in the Sulawesi villages of Tentena and Lage, where Christians rampaged, torching cars and police posts.
Thousands also rallied in the province of East Nusatenggara, home to many Catholics, blocking roads and attacking government buildings. Some 200 inmates escaped after a mob stormed a jail in the town of Atambua.
Although the government insists the three Christians got a fair trial, with 28 witnesses providing testimony, rights workers and legal experts noted that the judiciary is corrupt and susceptible to outside influence. Muslim hardliners gathered at the court for the trial, threatening judges, prosecutors, defense attorneys and witnesses.
Three Islamic militants on death row for the 2002 Bali bombings said they would rather be beheaded than face a firing squad, arguing it is a more humane way to die.
jag
:
I have no idea.
