IT was already daylight in the city of Poso when 700 fully armed police officers gathered at the headquarters of the Poso Regional Police Department. On Monday morning of last week, they were about to conduct an operation in Tanah Runtuh dubbed Operation Raid. Intelligence reports said that they would likely encounter resistance from armed citizens.

They were right. The operation to hunt down 16 of 26 men suspected of violent acts in Poso took pla