Pope’s fury at beheading of Indonesian Christians

Benedict condemns sectarian slaughter of three teenage girls in Sulawesi as barbaric.
Freddy Gray reports POPE BENEDICT XVI has condemned the beheading of three schoolgirls in Indonesia and is praying that the attack will not prompt more bloodshed between Muslims and Christians in the country.
The girls were attacked last Saturday in the town of Poso, in the province of central Sulawesi, as they walked to school dressed in brown uniforms. Their assailants were masked men armed with machetes. Three heads were found later that day, one outside a Catholic church and two near a police station. The bodies of the girls were left at the site of the attack. A fourth girl was seriously wounded.
Vatican spokesman Dr Joaquin Navarro-Valls said that the Pontiff had sent his condolences to the victims’ families and began to pray for an end to violence in Indonesia as soon as “he heard of the barbaric killing”.
Local religious and political leaders have appealed for calm. It is feared that the murders will reignite religious violence in the area. Indonesian security forces are on high alert, and 1,500 armed officers have been sent into Poso to monitor the situation. Bishop Joseph Theodorus Suwatan of Manado said he hoped the killers would not succeed in destabilising the province. “We are facing a strategy of terror that aims to shock the population and make it feel insecure, precisely when relations between the two communities have become peaceful,” he said. “Many are convinced that behind this violence is someone wishing to stir hatred.” He called on the police to find the guilty men as soon as possible.
Muslim leaders have said it is too soon to blame Islamic groups for the deaths. “Until authorities arrest the killers and disclose the motive, is too early to say this attack was religiously motivated,” said Syafi’i Ma’arif, leader of Indonesia’s second-largest non-political Muslim group, Muhammadiyah. “But I can say the Muslim community is shocked and deeply concerned about the inhumane killing of innocent students.” On Tuesday, police claimed to have identified the perpetrators, but were unwilling to name them. One of the key witnesses was Noviana Malewa, the girl who survived the attack. The killers are thought to be still in Poso. Apart from sporadic outbreaks of terrorism, the Indonesian government has succeeded in controlling inter-religious violence since 2001, when a peace deal between Muslims and Christians was brokered. Inter-faith conflicts killed more than 2,000 people between 1998 and 2001.
The Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need, which last year raised hundreds of thousdands of pounds to help persecuted Christians in Indonesia, expressed outrage at the killings.
“What has happened to these girls is unbelievably sick,” said spokesman John Pontifex. “It is difficult to imagine anything so full of hatred and devoid of humanity. Let us hope that both the Muslim and Christian communities will have the maturity not to allow this problem to escalate.” Central Sulawesi is a poor region wedged between the Christian north of Indonesia and the Muslim south. It is thought that the rise in violence in the area can be attributed to the influx of Muslim migrants from Java in the south. The Christian majority has been dramatically reduced and Muslims now dominate political and commercial life in and around Poso. Locals say that Christians have been expelled from the area, where a number of extremist Islamic groups are active. CNN reported last year that foreign mujaheddin were being smuggled into Sulawesi by al-Qaeda. As the Herald went to press no group had claimed responsibility for the beheadings.
Eighty-eight per cent of Indonesia’s 213 million population is Muslim. Catholics make up only three per cent. However, the Church plays an important role in promoting peace and inter-faith dialogue.