Indonesia Convicts 12 'Christian' Militants for Muslim Killings
An Indonesia court has charged 12 Christian believers with last year's mob murder of two Muslims in Central Sulawesi province .
The men, who will face a maximum penalty of death, were charged Monday with the murder of a Muslim fishmonger and his assistant during a Christian protest in September.
Thousands had demonstrated last fall against what they called the unjust execution of three Christian farmers convicted of leading a mob that killed hundreds of Muslims in a boarding school in 2000, reported Reuters.
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Indonesia is the world's most populous Muslim country with about 85 percent of its 220 million people saying they are followers of Islam. However, in Central Sulawesi province there is roughly an equal number of Muslims and Christians.
At least 1,000 people have died due to violence from the late 1998 until a peace agreement between the two communities took place in late 2001, according to The Associated Press.
Less than two weeks prior to Monday's conviction, another Jakarta court jailed three Muslim militants for the 2005 beheading of three Christian schoolgirls in Poso. The gruesome incident that gained international attention targeted three young girls all under ages 15-17 as they were walking to school.
The girls' heads were afterwards dropped off in Christian villages with letters reading "Wanted – 100 more heads. Blood must be pain with blood, lives with lives, heads with heads," according to AP.
However, one of the girl's mother publicly announced that she forgave her daughter's killers last December. Haderita Rongkohulu made the statement during a testimony to the Central Jakarta District Court where the Islamic militants were being held. She had met with the three suspects a month earlier in the National Police Headquarters where the Muslim militants offered their apologies and said they were seeking revenge for the deaths of Muslims that died from religious clashes in the region.
"I accepted their apologies," said Haderita, according to AP. "We have to forgive them for the sake of humanity," adding that she has no hard feelings toward them.
Also last month one of the largest evangelical theological schools in Indonesia was partially burned down by a large group of militant Muslims.
