For 10 days in Poso, I stayed with a friend near the Lombogia Urban Village Office. A partially destroyed house with cracked walls, covered with grass and shrubs, stood nearby. There was no roof left. The building had been a witness to communal violence in Poso, a period that has left this coastal city with a reputation for religion conflict.

In December 1998, Lombogia was the site of the flashpoint where a fight between Muslim and Christian men over politics ended brutally, sparking struggles for vengeance. That first phase of violence was described in a Human Rights Watch report as “short and limited to several neighbourhoods in Poso town”, but the violence continued, in separate phases, through to December 2001.

Members only

Log in or

Join New Naratif as a member to continue reading


We are independent, ad-free and pro-democracy. Our operations are member-funded. Membership starts from just US$5/month! Alternatively, write to sponsorship@newnaratif.com to request a free sponsored membership. As a member, you are supporting fair payment of freelancers, and a movement for democracy and transnational community building in Southeast Asia.

Eko started his career as an announcer at Sindikasi Berita Pantau (Yayasan Pantau Jakarta) in 2008. Now a freelance writer, he has written for a range of publications including Mongabay and Vice Indonesia. He’s based in South Sulawesi.