10/08/2006

INDONESIAN CHRISTIANS PROTESTING PLAN TO EXECUTE THREE fighters over attacks on Muslims

More than 2,000 Indonesian Christians rallied Thursday against a plan to execute three co-religionists found guilty of leading a series of attacks on Muslims in eastern Indonesia.

Fabianus Tibo, Dominggus da Silva and Marinus Riwu are scheduled to be put to death Saturday for their role in inciting and carrying out attacks on Sulawesi in 2000 during violence that that left some 1,000 dead from both faiths.

The largest rally took place in the Christian-dominated town of Tentena on Sulawesi, where more than 2,000 people rallied and prayed together. Protests were also held in two towns on Flores island, the birth place of the three men, witnesses there said.

Most shops and markets closed in Tentena for the rally, according to an Associated Press reporter in the town.

�Tibo, Dominggus and Marinus do not deserve to be executed because they are not the main culprits,� hard-line Christian leader Rinaldy Damanik told the crowd in Tentena. �Whatever happens, we cannot accept their executions.�

The demonstrations show the sensitivities of the looming executions in Indonesia, which is the world's most populous Muslim nation but has significant Christian minorities. In Sulawesi and some other eastern regions, Christian and Muslim populations are roughly equal.

The European Union criticized Indonesia on Thursday over the planned executions.

�News of the imminent execution of three Indonesian citizens, which is all the more serious in the light of the fragile equilibrium that exists between different ethnic and religious groups, cannot fail to cause concern to Europe,� said Franco Frattini, vice-president of the European Commission.

Capital punishment is banned in the European Union.

The Rome-based Catholic group Sant'Egidio Community said in a statement that Manado Bishop Joseph Suwatan signed a joint humanitarian appeal together with Ulama Muslims head K.H. Arifin Assagaf and the president of the Association of Protestant Churches, Nico Gara, to suspend the executions.

The three Christians were sentenced in 2001 for inciting and carrying out a series of attacks on Sulawesi, including the notorious massacre of scores of unarmed students at a Muslim boarding school in the town of Poso.

The violence spread from nearby Maluku islands, where around 9,000 people were killed.

Few people have been brought to justice from either community.

The three men on death row have insisted they are not guilty, but their final appeal was turned down by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono last year.

Amnesty International has said it was concerned at reports indicating that the trial of the three men did not meet international standards of fairness.