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Viewing cable 07SURABAYA85, CENTRAL SULAWESI: POST-CONFLICT TENTENA AND POSO -- SAVING

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Reference ID Created Released Classification Origin
07SURABAYA85 2007-12-06 03:33 2011-08-24 01:00 UNCLASSIFIED//FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY Consulate Surabaya
VZCZCXRO4906
RR RUEHCHI RUEHCN RUEHDT RUEHHM
DE RUEHJS #0085/01 3400333
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 060333Z DEC 07
FM AMCONSUL SURABAYA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 0124
INFO RUEHZS/ASSOCIATION OF SOUTHEAST ASIAN NATIONS
RUEHBY/AMEMBASSY CANBERRA 0056
RUEHJA/AMEMBASSY JAKARTA 0110
RUEHJS/AMCONSUL SURABAYA 0127
RUEHC/USAID WASHDC
RHHMUNA/USPACOM HONOLULU HI
RUEHWL/AMEMBASSY WELLINGTON 0054
UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 SURABAYA 000085 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR EAP, EAP/MTS, EAP/MLS, INR/EAP, DRL, EAP/PD 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL PGOV KPAO EAID SOCI PTER SCUL
SUBJECT: CENTRAL SULAWESI:  POST-CONFLICT TENTENA AND POSO -- SAVING 
A "LOST GENERATION" 
 
REF: JAKARTA 2597, 2598, 3143 
 
SURABAYA 00000085  001.2 OF 002 
 
 
This message is sensitive but unclassified.  Please protect 
accordingly. 
 
1. (SBU) Summary: On December 3, Syaiful Anam and Amril Ngiode 
were sentenced to 18 years and 15 years respectively for bombing 
a market in Tentena on May 29, 2005.  The bombing, which killed 
22 and wounded 40, was only one horrifying episode during an 
extended period of violent inter-religious conflict in Central 
Sulawesi.  Consulate General Surabaya Pol/Econ Officer and 
Pol/Econ Assistant visited religious leaders in Poso and Tentena 
in November to assess progress in ongoing efforts to recover 
from more than eight years of violence.  Muslim and Christian 
leaders in both towns indicated that the hard work of recovery 
is more critical than ever before.  Officials at the new 
Christian University in Tentena requested USG assistance to 
develop higher educational standards.  End Summary. 
 
2. (SBU) During a November visit to Poso and Tentena, Surabaya 
Pol/Econ Officer and Pol/Econ Assistant spoke extensively with 
religious leaders, academics, NGOs, and government officials 
about continuing efforts to help local communities recover from 
years of inter-religious violence.  As witnessed during our 
September trip to Central Sulawesi (Jakarta 2597 and 2598), 
residents are focused on rebuilding, reconciliation, and 
development in an effort to eliminate the distrust and poverty 
which allowed extremists to turn religious differences into 
violence. 
 
3. (SBU) The original Regency of Poso, once populated by roughly 
equal numbers of Muslims and Christians, has now become three 
separate regencies:  Poso, Morowali and Tojo Una-Una.  Poso 
itself is now 22% Muslim, 71% Protestant and the remaining 
roughly 7% Catholic, Hindu and Buddhist, according to figures 
supplied by the Christian University in Tentena.  Since 1998, 
roughly 30% of the Poso Regency's population -- some 90,000 
people -- have become refugees.  Christians resettled largely in 
Tentena, while Muslims in Palu and Parigi.  Christian leaders 
from the Christian Church of Central Sulawesi (GKST) in Tentena 
told us that Muslims merchants had recently returned to the same 
Tentena market that had been bombed in 2005.  They felt this was 
a clear indication of a changed atmosphere in Tentena, and 
evidence that things were finally on the right track.  Police 
and religious leaders are focused on rooting out the sort of 
extremists that have fed the conflict (Jakarta 3143). 
 
Poso--A Focus on Development 
--------------------------------- 
 
4. (SBU) Muslim leaders Yahya Mangun and Daeng Raja of the Poso 
Ulama Council told us that while the situation in Poso was 
currently good, they remained on guard against the arrival of 
hardliners, like those from Java who previously incited 
inter-religious conflict.  The scorched walls of homes attacked 
during the conflict were still visible, but many newer homes 
were visible too in areas hard hit by violence.  Mangun stressed 
that while "billions of rupiah" had reached the region, a 
foundation for long term development had yet to solidify.  Poso 
community leaders are focused on developing the agriculture and 
tourism sectors, particularly ways to improve corn harvest 
efficiency, (which is locally more profitable than cocoa 
according to Daeng Raja).  While the local government dreams of 
large-scale investment down the road, interim success has been 
achieved through the work of one local NGO, the Sayogya 
Institute, which has successfully established a microfinance 
program in Poso.  During our visit to local villages, we met 
with several beneficiaries who had started new businesses in the 
previous year.  One Muslim woman told us that the expert advisor 
assigned to help her was Christian, and she had never had an 
opportunity to interact so closely with someone of another faith 
before.  Thus the program did not merely help her family survive 
economically, it gave her family a chance reassess its 
preconceptions about people of other faiths and reduced the 
potential for future violence. 
 
New Religious Geography 
--------------------------- 
 
5. (SBU) In late April 2007, President Yudhoyono visited a 
number of religious institutions in Poso and Tentena and laid 
the foundation for several new ones.  He placed a cornerstone 
for a new Islamic boarding school (pesantren), inspected 
reconstruction efforts at a damaged mosque in Poso regency, and 
laid the cornerstone of the Christian University of Tentena 
 
SURABAYA 00000085  002.2 OF 002 
 
 
(UNKRIT).  The president pledged support for these diverse 
institutions and stressed their symbolic importance in the 
recovery of the province.  Officials at UNKRIT told us that 
their institution is not meant to serve only a Protestant 
Christian population.  They hope that more general academic 
courses like English, computer science, economics and sociology 
will attract students from various religious backgrounds and 
speed reconciliation between Christian and Muslim populations. 
 
A Request for US Help 
------------------------ 
 
6. (SBU) UNKRIT officials described to us their plans to bolster 
development of the Christian community and presented us with a 
prospectus outlining their needs.  Fearing a "lost generation" 
of children and young adults in their refugee communities, 
UNKRIT officials are working to expand their fledgling 
university to serve the regency's new Christian majority.  The 
conflict has a continuing visible presence on campus; many 
Christian refugees live in makeshift plywood and corrugated 
steel housing on land now owned by the University.  Refugees are 
supposed to vacate these homes this year and move elsewhere. 
UNKRIT officials are not certain what will happen because there 
is no resettlement plan at present.  University officials 
requested US government assistance in training faculty, 
providing scholarships for promising students, and installing 
teleconference facilities so that they can begin a distance 
education program with universities elsewhere in Indonesia and 
around the world. 
MCCLELLAND