Word: laskar
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Dates: during 2001-2001
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...study in contrasts, Mohammad Ichsan, deputy commander of Laskar Jihad's forces in Sulawesi, exudes a high-energy rage that reverberates in his hoarse voice, as he leans forward on the edge of a chair in the group's headquarters, a small house at the end of a narrow alley in Poso. Ichsan also denies that his forces are on the offensive. The town, a once thriving fishing port famous for its carving of ebony wood harvested from nearby forests, is now shuttered and virtually deserted but for Laskar fighters. Even police and army troops stay close to their base...
...Adults peep out from behind heavy green metal shutters. Their children are bolder, and a gang of five- or six-year-old boys dressed in black vests and bin Laden T shirts, their heads covered by black balaclavas, race in and out of the grimy front room of the Laskar headquarters repeatedly shouting "Assalamu' alaikum" (may peace be with you) as they wield machetes, 30-cm daggers and loaded shotguns. Their antics draw an abrupt, approving laugh from Ichsan. Obviously the boys' role model, the stocky 32-year-old is clad entirely in black, down to the socks he wears...
...Speaking on the morning of Nov. 28, Ichsan also warned that if the other side retaliated, anything was possible: "If one Muslim is killed by a Christian, we're going to chase him to his grave." Days later Laskar launched its all-out attack that left behind smoldering villages and tens of thousands of refugees fleeing toward the safety of Tentena, an hour's drive inland from Poso. The raids have died down, but only after Christian sources reported that Laskar troops took over the last remaining road connecting Tentena to the outside world. That's when Christian community leaders...
...What happens next in Sulawesi depends in part on the young policeman stationed in Poso who calls himself Rudi. Despite being heavily armed?he carries a holstered pistol as well as an automatic rifle and a bayonet?Rudi is reluctant to stop at a Laskar Jihad checkpoint on the road outside Poso. "Do we have a letter of authorization?" he asks, keeping his finger on the trigger guard of his rifle. Although they muster only an antiquated shotgun and a homemade rifle among them, he hangs back from the villagers manning the makeshift wooden hut from which the black flag...
...backing one side or the other. "Whenever we try and do something, it seems like someone from the top stops it," he says. But Rudi, a Javanese Muslim, has no doubt about what would be an indispensable, giant step toward peace: "It would be much safer without the Laskar Jihad. The locals all want peace, but the people from outside keep the fighting going...