A Bloody Christmas.(bombings of Christian churches)(Brief Article)

The bombs were well made, and terrifyingly efficient. On the evening of Dec. 24, just as many Christians were attending church services, nearly two dozen explosions rocked 11 churches scattered around Indonesia. The bombs contained digital timing devices, TNT and plenty of skin-piercing shrapnel. Most of them detonated between 8:30 and 9 p.m. on Christmas Eve. When the smoke cleared, 16 people were dead and 118 people were wounded. On Christmas Day, many fearful Christians stayed away from church services. Those people who did go to church had their purses and bags checked by police.

At first blush, the attacks seemed to fit a pattern of Muslim-versus- Christian violence that, in recent months, has wracked parts of the Indonesian archipelago. But according to police investigators in Jakarta, the careful coordination of the blasts -- and their nationwide scale -- exceed the capabilities of any known group of indigenous Islamic extremists acting on their own. Indeed, the precision attacks convinced many officials it was the work of supporters of deposed President Suharto's "New Order" regime -- including military operatives hoping to spark a destabilizing spiral of religious bloodshed. "I believe there are powerful people from the New Order behind the bombings," Defense Minister M. Mahfud said last week.

Suharto stepped down in May 1998. Since then his successors have been struggling to replace his three-decades-old autocracy with democratic institutions. But for the reformers, Indonesia's legacy of corruption and cronyism is a Gordian knot. Beyond that, the current government of President Abdurrahman Wahid has behaved erratically and, at times, ineptly. It now faces many challenges -- an economic crisis, separatist movements and a tough fight to convict Suharto's cronies of plundering government coffers. Wahid denounced the attacks, calling them "the last breath of those who fear that if the government can remain stable, we will enter a new era of economics awakening and democracy." ...