JAKARTA - Police and army in Central Sulawesi are put on high alert after warnings that Islamic militants are planning attacks in the area. This was told by the regional police chief late Friday. Earlier that day the Australian government had announced it had credible information that militants were already in an advanced stage of planning attacks in Central Sulawesi, which has been the scene of tensions between Christians and Muslims for quite some time now.
"We have been on alert level 1 since last month when there were warnings of a shift in militant operations from Java to Central Sulawesi," told Badrotin Haiti provincial police chief to Reuters. Indonesia is the worlds most populous Muslim country and has been his with a series of terrorist attacks blamed on Islamic militants. Some of the attacks were directly aimed at western targets, like those in Jakarta and Bali where hundreds of people died in several terrorist attacks.
Haiti said that security forces were also searching for illegal weapons in the area of Poso, a region hit by Christian-Muslim fighting. Over 2.000 people from both religious communities were killed in three years of fighting before a peace treaty was signed in 2001. Ever since this fragile treaty is undermined by sporadic attacks mainly targetting Christians in the area.
Australia advised it's people to avoid al government buildings in Central Sulawesi. "Recent credible reports indicate that terrorists may be in the advanced stages of planning attacks in Sulawesi," Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs said. The situation in Poso has been tense after the execution of three Christian militants last september because of their role in the massacre of a Muslim boarding school in 2000.
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JAKARTA - Police and army in Central Sulawesi are put on high alert after warnings that Islamic militants are planning attacks in the area. This was told by the regional police chief late Friday. Earlier that day the Australian government had announced it had credible information that militants were already in an advanced stage of planning attacks in Central Sulawesi, which has been the scene of tensions between Christians and Muslims for quite some time now.
