TEARFUL Christians held funerals on Monday for some of the 22 victims of twin bombings in Indonesia's Sulawesi Island. Two bombs exploded 15 minutes apart in a busy market place in the predominantly Christian town of Tentena, killing 22 people and leaving more than 50 injured. Nineteen of the dead were Christians, hospital officials in Tentena said. One unidentified and unclaimed corps lay in the hospital's morgue covered by a bloody sheet. The blasts were the worst in Indonesia since the 2002 Bali blasts that killed 202 people. There has been no claim of responsibility for the bombings. Also, officials declined to speculate on the identity of the bomber, but a senior police official stated that the attack could be the work of the Gamaa Islamiya, a group believed to be the Southeast Asian arm of Al-Qaeda. Some officials say the bombing has the hallmarks of Azahari Hussein, a Malaysian wanted for involvement in the Bali, attacks on Jakarta's Marriott Hotel and the Australian Embassy. Although security experts say it was probably the work of local Islamic militants who are inspired by the Gamaa Islamiya or the militants who have been responsible for a series of attacks on Christian targets in Sulawesi Island. Community leaders struggle to contain sectarian tensions, but the bombing of Tentena has dealt a crippling blow to the fragile peace effort. Tentena, 1,500km northeast of Jakarta, is a part of an area where three years of Muslim-Christian fighting had killed 2,000 people until a peace deal was approved in 2001. Additionally, thousands of people from both religions fled their homes and sought refuge from persecution and harassment. However, recent years have seen several minor bomb explosions. Last year two Christian men were wounded when a group of attackers fired randomly into houses in the Poso region, close to Tentena. Last May, a Christian prosecutor who handled terrorism cases was assassinated in the Sulawesi city of Palu, while in July a gunman sprayed bullets into a Palu church, killing a priest and injuring four other people. While more than 90 per cent of Indonesia's 214 million people are Muslims practising a moderate and tolerant brand of the religion, Sulawesi's population is equally divided between Muslims and Christians. Indonesian President Susilo Yudhoyono has said that he will order a review of security and intelligence operations after the bombing. Military Chief Endriartono Sutarto emphasised the need to improve intelligence gathering, adding that officials had received indications of possible fresh attacks about two weeks earlier. Sulawesi's bombing threatened to overshadow a tour by President Yudhoyono of the United States, Vietnam and Japan. One of the aim of the his trip is to convince foreign investors that Indonesia is a safe and easy place to do business. Last Thursday, the United States closed all of its four diplomatic missions in Indonesia because of a security threat.
