Indonesia: Molotov Cocktails Used to Attack Protestant Church

South Sulawesi: Molotov cocktail attack on Protestant church, fear among Christians
ICC Note: In the early morning hours on Monday assailants used Molotov cocktails in an attempt to firebomb a Protestant church in Indonesia. No one was injured and the church received only minor damage, but the incident has heightened alertness in a region prone to activity by violent Islamic militants. The attack took place in south Sulawesi, and Indonesian island that little more than a decade ago was wracked by violence which left thousands of Christians dead, injured, or homeless.   
Mathias Hariyadi
2/11/2013 Indonesia (AN) – A group of unknown assailants attacked the Protestant Church Toraja Mamassa in Makassar, the capital of the Indonesian province of South Sulawesi with Molotov cocktails. The episode took place at 4 this morning and so far, nothing is known of the authors of the act and there are no official claims. In an attempt to set it on fire, the unknown assailants caused minor damage to the building. Investigators are focusing on Islamic extremist factions in the area, but there is no physical evidence so far.
Local authorities have tightened controls and the level of security around the Christian place of worship and throughout the area. Local witnesses reported that, in the night, three unidentified people hurled Molotov cocktails at the building, then they hastily abandoned the scene of the crime. The act has caused minor damage to the walls of the structure.
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From 1997 to 2001 the island of Sulawesi and the nearby Moluccas were the scene of a bloody Muslim-Christian conflict. Thousands of victims and houses were razed to the ground, hundreds of churches and mosques destroyed, and almost half a million people made refugees, of which 25 thousand in Poso alone. On 20 December 2001 a truce was signed between the two sides in Malino, South Sulawesi, through a peace plan promoted by the government. However, the truce has not stopped sporadic episodes of terror against innocent victims. Among the various cases the beheading of three girls on their way to school, at the hands of Islamic extremists in October 2005
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