Seventh-day Adventist Church members from the eastern Indonesian island of Sulawesi are among the thousands of people enduring ongoing anti-Christian violence in Indonesia. To date, an estimated 400 Adventists have fled Poso, the main town in central Sulawesi, to escape the riots and killings caused by clashes between Islamic militants and Christians.
In the Poso area, one Adventist church has been destroyed by rioters and two churches have been damaged, Adventist Church leaders in eastern Indonesia reported August 28. The homes of two Adventist pastors have been burned down, along with 14 homes of church members in the region.
Details about the physical condition of the hundreds of Adventist refugees are difficult to obtain, but church leaders in the area say that at least six church members have been wounded and 37 have reported being robbed or assaulted. Leaders cannot confirm if any Adventists in the Poso area have been killed.
A wave of religiously motivated violence has engulfed many parts of Indonesia since January 1999, leaving an estimated 500,000 Christians without homes and 2,500 dead. Hiskia Missah, public affairs and religious liberty spokesperson for the Adventist church in the southern Asia-Pacific region, says that the situation in the eastern Indonesian Maluku Islands, is “becoming worse.” He says that international pressure, from the United Nations and other international human rights organizations, is vital.
“As a church family, we pray for our brothers and sisters in Indonesia and for the hundreds of thousands of others who are suffering the loss of loved ones or the destruction of their homes,” says Pastor Jan Paulsen, president of the Adventist Church worldwide. “Violence in the name of religion can never be justified. The Adventist message is of a compassionate, freedom-loving God, and this is the message we will continue to proclaim with all our strength.”
The Adventist Church has some 180,000 church members in Indonesia worshiping in more than 1,100 churches.