Muslim on trial for allegedly beheading Christian girls

A suspected Muslim militant went on trial today accused of the beheadings of three Christian girls as they walked to school on Indonesia’s terror-scarred Sulawesi island.

Prosecutors alleged that Hasanuddin wanted to avenge the deaths of Muslims by Christian mobs during sectarian fighting between 1999 and 2002 and left a hand-written note with the girls’ heads vowing more machete attacks.

“We still need another 100 heads,” said the note, according to the indictment read out by prosecutor Payaman. “Blood must be avenged by blood.”

Hasanuddin and two other suspects captured months after the October 2005 attack on an isolated jungle track are being charged under anti-terrorism laws and could face the death penalty if found guilty.

Prosecutors said Hasanuddin was the ringleader of the attack and was present during it, but did not wield a machete himself. Prosecutors allege he gave money to the other attackers to buy machetes and plastic bags to put the girls heads in. The heads were dumped close to a church and police station in the seaside town.

Hasanuddin, who was only identified by one name in court, did not speak except to say he intended to deliver a defence against the charges.

Large-scale clashes between the two faiths claimed some 1,000 lives before ending in 2002 with a peace agreement, but sporadic attacks – mostly by suspected Muslim militants on Christian men, woman and children – have continued.

Tensions flared anew last month after the execution of three Roman Catholic militants convicted of leading a 2000 attack on an Islamic school that killed at least 70 people.

Indonesia is the world’s most populous Muslim nation, with 90 percent of its 220 million people professing the faith. But Central Sulawesi has a roughly equal number of Muslim and Christians.