CENTRAL SULAWESI: LOCAL VIEWS OF POST CONFLICT ECONOMIC

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 SURABAYA 000074 SENSITIVE SIPDIS DEPT FOR EAP, EAP/MTS, INR/EAP, DRL/PHD E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PGOV ID KISL PTER EAID PREL SOCI SCUL SUBJECT: CENTRAL SULAWESI: LOCAL VIEWS OF POST CONFLICT ECONOMIC RECOVERY IN POSO REF: SURABAYA 85 SURABAYA 00000074 001.2 OF 002 This message is sensitive but unclassified. Please protect accordingly. ¶1. (SBU) Summary: Former sites of extreme violence between Muslim and Christian communities throughout the Central Sulawesi city of Poso are now safe, although physical signs of the conflict remain. Residents of the Poso and NGO leaders told visiting Surabaya Pol/Econ Officer that economic development is the key to integrating communities once polarized by violence. A tour of the city and discussion with residents confirmed that violence of the sort that occurred over the previous decade would not return if the economy continued to improve. End Summary. ¶2. (SBU) A late May car trip around Poso demonstrated that each of its neighborhoods had a different experience during the years of conflict. Today, each is at a different stage of recovery. At one extreme, one former Christian area in southeast Poso is nothing but ruins hidden along asphalt streets nearly reclaimed by the jungle. At the other extreme, several religiously mixed neighborhoods closer to central Poso were largely or completely unscathed during the fighting. According to one NGO worker, Muslims and Christians in these neighborhoods protected one another's homes, identifying with neighbors of other faiths instead of with extremists of their own faith during the conflict. Tanah Runtuh in southwest Poso is a village that was once the site of a shoot-out between Indonesian anti-terror units and the extremist group Jemaah Islamiyah. Today Tanah Runtuh looks like a sleepy East Javanese village and local people travel freely through the center of town. Bamboo Hill Has Moved On -------------- ¶3. (SBU) The predominantly Christian village of Bukit Bambu (Bamboo Hill) overlooks the city of Poso from an isolated hilltop about two miles southwest of downtown. In 2005, three Christian girls native to the village were beheaded on an isolated road as they walked to school. The road is still in poor repair and only motorcycles and pedestrians can use it safely, according to a minister and retired school teacher who live in the village. The village's new church and elementary school were rebuilt in 2006. Sweeping her outstretched arm as she stood in a soccer field that serves as the village square, the teacher said, "all this was burned to the ground." She included her home and that of her neighbor, the minister, in the gesture. They both said they can't afford to build new homes so temporary houses provided by the government, so-called RTS (Rumah Tinggal Sementara),have become their permanent homes. The heavily decorated graves of the three school girls beheaded by three extremist Muslim attackers are located barely two meters from the roadside at the village entrance. Despite first hand experience with violence the villagers of Bukit Bambu said they are weary of conflict and focused on practical concerns, especially effective cocoa farming. ¶4. (SBU) Bukit Bambu's minister said that business skills are lacking among local farmers and this often causes jealousy towards Javanese and Balinese newcomers who seem to succeed where locals fail. This was true particularly in retail trades but also in agriculture. Local farmers need business skills to diversify and save for the long term, she said. Poso farmers are too easily satisfied with just getting by while outsiders are apt to try to expand their operations and diversify, according to many in Poso. Poso's limited local port facilities and roads exacerbate the region's isolation and increase the difficulty of moving goods to market. Ironically, hillsides cleared for timber and cocoa production along the region's main artery, the Palu - Poso road, are prone to landslides as a result of deforestation. This creates a need for major seasonal repair and further delays getting goods of all kinds to market. Sino-Indonesians, What Brings them Back? -------------- ¶5. (SBU) Ethnic Chinese-Indonesians continue to return to Poso and many are playing an important economic role, according to observation and conversations with local residents. Two large motorcycle retail franchises and repair shops have opened over the last four years across from the national police headquarters in Poso. Poso's only large electrical appliance retailer opened nearby. A motorcycle parts shop owner of Chinese descent told SURABAYA 00000074 002.2 OF 002 Pol-Econ officer that she had returned just two years ago and opened up in a prime location next to the major motorcycle retailers in the center of town. She sensed that there was some risk of violence to her business, but felt that such a possibility was remote. When asked why some sections of the city had yet to see re-development, she speculated that many smaller Sino-Indonesian shop owners lacked the capital needed to return from where they had fled. She explained that for a small shop owner, the returns would not outweigh the risks and many would be reluctant to start from scratch. Portions of the city outside the main shopping district and Poso Market remain shuttered and some former shop fronts are being used as warehouses for other businesses, according to local merchants there. The New Terminal and the Rocky Road Ahead -------------- --- ¶6. (SBU) Poso's economy has long depended on its transport links to other parts of Sulawesi. A strong migrant community in Poso reflects the region's history as a regional crossroads. However, there are no large scale port facilities, except those used for fuel transport by the national oil company Pertamina. Completed in 2007, a new transport terminal is an emblem of the challenges to recovery in Poso. Constructed barely a half mile south of Tanah Runtuh and about two miles southwest of the city center, the new transport terminal was built to attract trans-Sulawesi transport from the coastal highway running through the city. It has yet to replace the current terminal downtown, however. Local residents said that the terminal is too far away from Poso Market. Intended to relieve congestion downtown and develop other parts of the city damaged by the conflict, the roads linking the terminal to the coastal road or the rest of Poso have yet to be improved. The site remains largely deserted, surrounded by fields, ruined buildings, and unimproved roads. MCCLELLAND