2005 Tentena market bombings

The explosions

The first device detonated at around 8:15 a.m. and witnesses observed many of the victims who had come to help those injured in the first blast were killed by the second, larger explosion that left a 3-foot-deep crater. The blasts flattened food stands and also damaged a bank, a Christian church and a police station in central Tentena town. The Poso district police chief announced another, unexploded bomb was later discovered outside a nearby church.

The Jakarta Post initially reported 27 people were killed in the attack, citing volunteers at the Tentena General Hospital, however casualty figures were revised down to 22.

A trial for a cleric convicted of financing the attack later heard four militants had split into two groups to plant the devices in the meat and produce section in the market of the predominantly Christian town.

Ngiode described that the bombs had been assembled out of TNT and sulphur, with large pieces of iron added to create shrapnel. One weapon had been concealed in a cardboard box and transported to the market in a black plastic bag disguised with vegetables. Explained to the court also by Ngiode was that the initial target was actually a Catholic school adjacent to the Tentena market, but that during their survey the convicted terrorists found the market was more crowded.

Investigation

Prior to the bombing, in January 2005, authorities had discovered 60 homemade bombs in an abandoned house in Poso and, earlier in May, the Indonesian police had arrested three Muslim extremists in Central Sulawesi for alleged involvement in another attack using similar devices.

As of June 2005, 13 suspects had been arrested as part of the investigation into the attacks, including an escaped convict arrested near Tentena shortly after the bombings and the head warden of the main jail in the Muslim town of Poso. Ten other suspects in the Tentena and other attacks were arrested in early 2007 also.

In 2007 Anam and Djanatu were convicted with planting the devices in Tentena and sentenced to 18 years and 14 years jail respectively while Ngiode received a 15-year sentence for assembling the bombs and other charges of possessing illegal weapons and assault. The militants sentenced were among 6 Muslim militants jailed for crimes against Christian residents around Poso since the 2001 Malino Peace Treaty including the beheading of three school girls. The alleged bomb designer, identified as Taufik Buraga by Ngiode, still remains at large.

In a 2010 trial in Jakarta, hard-line Islamic cleric Eko Budi Wardoyo was convicted and sentenced to 10 years jail for providing funding to the perpetrators to assemble the two bombs and was identified as the primary adviser behind the attack. At the cleric's trial, as witness, Ngiode gave testimony that Wardoyo “used to say that jihad meant paying back the Christians for what they had done to the Muslim communities in Poso,” and that he had been taught to pursue jihad almost exclusively by the cleric, describing the attack as having been motivated by revenge.

References

References

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2. (28 May 2005). "Bomb blasts kill at least 22 in Indonesia". Associated Press via NBC News.
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4. "IV. PART TWO: CHRONOLOGY OF THE CONFLICT". Human Rights Watch.
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8. Haryanto, Ulma. (24 August 2010). "Cleric’s Trial Told of Poso’s Bloody Reign of Terror". Jakarta Globe.
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10. Bhakti, Adhe. (4 November 2010). "Indonesian Cleric Gets 10 Years for Funding Terror". Jakarta Globe.