[6] In part due to centuries of shipping trade, the indigenous Muslim population had integrated Bugis migrants from Southern Sulawesi and a small group of Arab traders, whose descendants held important places in Islamic institutions.
Following the devaluation of the rupiah, the cultivation of such cash crops by migrants increased and several trans-migrant groups established plantations in previously forested interior areas considered to be Christian land.
[6] Human Rights Watch describes that the outbreaks of violence coincided with disputes over candidates for political positions in economically significant district, as the elected official was able to grant valuable government contracts.
[1] Early on the morning of 24 May, a gang of Christian militia members, led by transmigrant Fabianus Tibo, killed a policeman and two civilians in central Poso town and took refuge in a Catholic church.
[11] Some observers suggested the violence was planned during a national Quran reading contest in Palu attended by the president and vice-president, as authorities would be distracted by the large event and the presence of the Indonesian executive leaders.
[1] Some groups sought retaliation for the attacks, most notably Al-Khaira'at, a prominent Islamic educational institution in Eastern Indonesia, which is alleged to have purchased materials to produce weapons and to have distributed machetes and quantities of money to volunteers sent by truck from Palu to Poso.
[1] Later that July, three militants born in East Nusa Tenggara, convicted murderer Tibo, Dominggus da Silva and Don Marinus Riwu, were apprehended on suspicion of organizing the massacre.
[1] In 2001 a three-judge court, after hearing testimony from 28 witnesses, convicted Tibo as the leader of a Christian militia called the Red Group and found that da Silva was one of his commanders and that Mr. Riwu took part in the killings.
[2] A similar attack by alleged Red Group members was staged against the majority Muslim village of Buyung Katedo on 3 June 2001, killing at least 14 people, all but two of whom were women and children.
[1][5] Muslim militants are accused of two separate massacres against Sulawesi civilians in October 2003, which killed 8 in the predominantly Christian villages of Saatu, Pantangolemba and Pinedampa and another three in the neighbouring Morowali regency a few days earlier.
The bodies of 63 unidentified people were discovered at the base of a ravine nearby Tagolu village several months after[9] while a further mass grave, allegedly containing more deceased residents of Sintuwu Lemba, was unearthed in May 2006 following the information provided at trial by the three convicted militants.