CATHOLIC and Uniting Church sources have warned of the potential of a massacre of Christians in Indonesia this Christmas if the Government cannot bring under control Muslim militias.
The Fides missionary news service from Rome and the Moderator of the Uniting Church in Australia, Rev James Haire, both warned of a massacre in central Sulawesi, the octopus-shaped island east of Borneo.
Fides said that at least 1000 Muslim militants were hidden in a forest 70 km east of Tentena, a predominantly Catholic area near the port of Poso.
The agency said its sources had advised that the Laskar Jihad group was preparing a Christmas of bloodshed.
Rev Haire has called on the Australian Government to involve Jakarta in defusing the situation.
Australia also had to help with humanitarian aid when the Jihad militias had been sent home and trust had been restored through dialogue between moderate Muslim and Christian leaders, he said.
Rev Haire said Jihad militias were holding 70,000 Christians under siege.
The Uniting Church leader, who served in Sulawesi and speaks fluent Indonesian, said his Indonesian Church contacts had told him of a volatile situation that could lead to mass murder and total breakdown of civil society around Christmas.
