wfn.org | Christian Churches In Indonesia Bombed

[Worldwide Faith News <wfn@igc.org>]

Januar 20, 2002
Adventist Press Service (APD)
Christian B. Schaeffler, Editor-in-chief
Fax +41-61-261 61 18
APD@stanet.ch
http://www.stanet.ch/APD
CH-4003 Basel, Switzerland

Christian Churches In Indonesia Bombed

Palu, Sulawesi, Indonesia. Adventist Church
sources have confirmed that among the four churches
which were bombed on New Year's Eve included the
biggest Seventh-Day Adventist Church in Palu,
Eastern  Indonesian province of Sulawesi.

The Adventist Church was hit first with a homemade
bomb at 11:50 p.m. Only the front door and most of
the windows were broken, according to church
sources in the region. No causalities were reported.
Minutes later bombs also exploded at the Indonesian
Christian Church and at a Pentecostal Church.
A fourth bomb exploded at another Pentecostal
house of worship the next morning, Tuesday Jan. 1.

"Luckily our church members have their New Year's
service at sundown, not 12 o'clock midnight," said
Ernst Sahensolar, Central Sulawesi Mission president.
"It is tragic that religious strife continues," say
church sources. Police were guarding the four
churches the next day.

"The situation in Indonesia now needs more prayers
for God's interventions," says Reinhold Kesaulya,
president of the East Indonesia Union.

According to reports from the region's media, this
latest bomb attack is part of continuous strife over
religious control of the region. More than 1,000
people have died in the Muslim-Christian clashes
in the region during the past three years.