Palu, Indonesia – Indonesian officials said Wednesday that they had deployed thousands of police officers on Sulawesi island ahead of this week’s planned executions of three Christian men found guilty of leading deadly attacks on Muslims six years ago.
Amid complaints that the men did not receive a fair trial, a top Christian leader urged his community not to resort to violence and to pray that the president would grant them a last-minute reprieve.
Government officials, lawyers and priests said the convicts would face a firing squad today or early Friday.
The case is heightening tensions in the world’s most populous Muslim nation and raising questions about the role of religion in deciding punishment for sectarian violence that swept Sulawesi province from 1998 to 2002, killing more than 1,000 people from both communities.
Muslims have taken to the streets in recent weeks demanding the men be put to death while Christians have rallied for them to be spared.
The furor comes amid a Muslim outcry in many nations set off by Pope Benedict XVI’s recent comments on Islam. He had cited the words of a Byzantine emperor who characterized some of the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad as “evil and inhuman.” The pontiff said Wednesday that he did not mean to malign Islam.
Fabianus Tibo, 60; Marinus Riwu, 48; and Dominggus da Silva, 42, were found guilty of leading a Christian militia that launched attacks on Muslims in May 2000 – including an assault on an Islamic school that killed at least 70 people.
Christian groups note that only a handful of people were punished for the violence that racked Sulewesi, most receiving prison terms of less than 15 years. The bloodshed largely ended with the signing of a peace deal four years ago.
Tibo, Riwu and da Silva were the only people sentenced to death, and human-rights activists say it appears unlikely that they were the masterminds. Their trial, Christian groups allege, was a sham.
“My worry is there will be another bombing or shootings” timed to the executions, said Rinaldy Damanik, head of the Central Sulawesi assembly of churches. “If that happens, then I fear the masses will be uncontrollable.”
