JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) – Fabianus Tibo prays each night that he will not be dragged from his cell before dawn and shoved in front of a firing squad. But the Christian militant, on death row with two others for an attack that killed at least 70 Muslims, realizes time may be running out.
People pray for three Christians set to be executed at the local church in Palu on August 11, 2006. 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 through Sulawesi province from 1998 to 2002, killing more than 1,000 people from both communities. (Photo: AFP / File)
Thousands of Muslims have taken to the streets to demand the Christians be killed, with some of the protesters threatening holy war if the slayings in the coastal town of Poso are not avenged. The government insists the executions will take place despite pleas for pardons and the granting of one last-minute delay already.
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 through Sulawesi province from 1998 to 2002, killing more than 1,000 people from both communities. A handful of Muslims also were sentenced for killings, but they only got jail time.
The sentences also have sparked debate about capital punishment because – despite government denials – many in the public see the timing of the executions as linked to death sentences for three Islamic militants convicted in the 2002 terrorist bombings on the tourist island of Bali.
Arianto Sangaji, an academic and longtime observer of the Sulawesi conflict, noted that some people believe the government, in wanting to be seen as fair to both communities, is instead "playing lives off against each other."
"These cases have to be resolved in a legal context and with respect to human life," he argued.
A panel of three judges found Tibo, 60, Marianus Riwu, 48, and Dominggus da Silva, 42, guilty of leading a Christian militia that launched a series of attacks on Muslims in May 2000 – including a gun and machete assault that killed at least 70 people who had taken refuge in an Islamic school. Muslim groups put the toll at 191.
The men – poor farm laborers and migrants from elsewhere in Indonesia – insist they were not the masterminds and that their 2001 trial was a sham.
"They are scapegoats," Tibo's 29-year-old son Robert said following a recent prison visit. He said his father, though he seemed depressed after spending nearly three weeks in isolation, still held out hope of escaping execution.
"How could a poor, illiterate farmer instigate that kind of violence, convince others to kill?" Robert Tibo asked.
Though Indonesia's attorney general and the national police chief insist the Christian men got a fair trial, with 28 witnesses providing testimony, legal experts note that the country's judiciary is woefully corrupt and susceptible to outside influence.
"In Tibo's case, there was pressure from fundamentalists Muslims," said Frans Winarta, a member of the National Law Commission, noting also that the trials were held in Poso, where tensions were high and religious clashes ongoing, possibly intimidating judges, witnesses, prosecutors and the defense.
"In such a situation, the court is prone to make mistakes," he said, adding that Muslim mobs also reportedly gathered in front of the court ahead of the verdict, some throwing stones.
