| Submit your comments on this article |
| Southeast Asia |
| Police deployed to guard churches, mosques in Indonesia's Sulawesi |
| 2002-12-18 |
| Jakarta Post The guards on the mosques are probably redundant, but I guess we have to be even-handed, don't we? The local police in Central Sulawesi, Indonesia, will deploy hundreds of policemen to guard houses of worship during the upcoming Christmas and New Year celebrations here, the city's police chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Hakka Astana said on Tuesday. "Police officers will be deployed to all churches and mosques across the city. Each house of worship will be guarded by three policemen," Hakka said as quoted by Antara, while others would be assigned to guard public facilities, such as power plants, gas stations, telecommunications offices, ports, bus terminals and airports. Hakka said he did not want a recurrence of the bomb blasts that hit the city during Christmas last year, which damaged four churches and injured four people. He also called on the public to participate actively in guarding facilities near their neighborhoods through local security posts. "Hi! We're from the Indonesia Mujaheddin Council, and we're here to help guard this here church. Heh heh!" |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |