Prison for a peacemaker

Indonesian judges last week sentenced a key peacemaker between Muslims and Christians to three years in prison for weapons possession. Rinaldy Damanik, an Indonesian pastor, was found guilty despite evidence that police tortured witnesses for the prosecution in order to obtain their testimony.

Mr. Damanik assisted both Christians and Muslims fleeing the troubled Poso area during the height of Muslim-Christian violence last year. He was traveling in a relief convoy on Aug. 17, 2002, when police stopped him for questioning. The following day, they announced they had found illegal weapons in the vehicle.

During the bloody sectarian conflict that ravaged Central Sulawesi, where Poso is located, Mr. Damanik and his team from the Central Sulawesi Christian Church became well known in the Poso district for their readiness to enter hostile areas and evacuate innocent civilians. In 2001, a group of local Christians and Muslims, including Mr. Damanik, signed the Malino Peace Accord, which was supposed to end three years of hostilities in the province. The fighting, however, continued.