Central Sulawesi

The province Indonesia of central Sulawesi ( Sulawesi Tengah ) is consisted part of the northern peninsula or Péninsule of Minahasa, the north-eastern peninsula and part of the center of the island of Célèbes. It extends between 20°22' from northern latitude and 30°48' from southern latitude and enters and of longitude is. It is bordered in the west by the strait of Makassar, in north by the sea of Célèbes, in the east by the province of Gorontalo and the gulfs of Tomini and Tolo and in the south by the provinces of Sulawesi of South-east, Sulawesi of the South and Western Sulawesi. It includes/understands the archipelago of the islands Togian in the Golfe of Tomini and those of Banggai and Bowokan in the gulf of Tolo. Its capital is Palu.

The surface of the province is of 68.033 km ². Its population is of 2.215.400 inhabitants, that is to say a density of 29 habitants/km ².

History

Traditionally, the province was the seat of fifteen principalities, which in 1905 were attached to the the Indies Dutchwomen.

Population

The principal spoken languages with Sulawesi Tengah, are the saluan, the tomini (area of Toli-Toli) and the pamona (area of Poso).

Environment

The National park of Lore Lindu shelters the one of largest tropical forests of Indonesia, declared " Man and Reserve" Biosphere; by UNESCO. It extends on 2.170 km ² and shelters almost all the species of mammals and marsupials threatened of Célèbes, such as:

the Anoa of the mountains, left dwarf Buffle,
the Babiroussa, kind of wild boar,
Three species of Tarsier, smallest Primate of the world,
the Macaque of Tonke
a Marsupial, the cuscus.

The park also shelters some 227 species of birds, of which 77 do not exist nowhere elsewhere in the world.

Violences of Poso

From 1999, a radical Muslim organization diffuses vidéos showing atrocities allegedly made by Christians against Moslems with the Moluques and in the area of Poso. Another organization, the Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), recruits volunteers to carry out the " Djihad " and to assist to their co-religionists in these areas. According to the security services, the JI would have thus counted to 2.000 members, but the foreign experts, more careful, speak about hundreds of militants.

In Poso, the confrontations will last of 1999 to 2001, making nearly 2.000 dead. They will end following signed agreements in December 2001 and fvrier 2002 between the representatives of the various religious communities, under the auspices of the government indonésien. However, the tension will persist because of the maintenance of the islamist militia. Massacres of Christians will still take place in 2004 and 2005.

Each continuous part to claim justice in the name of violences which it underwent. In May 2000, of the Christians Moslems had continued and had massacred some a hundred. This act will be called upon like justification of bombs posed in 2005 and making tens of died and casualties. According to the International Crisis Group, these violences are not however ascribable to the only islamist militia. They would also imply members of the local authorities and chiefs of gangs.

References

Feillard, Andree and Madinier, Rémy, end of innocence? Islam indonésien vis-a-vis the radical temptation of 1967 to our days, the Erudite Indies, 2006

External bonds

Natural site of The Conservancy

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