Noha's throat was cut, his head nearly separated from his body. Some say a bid by the Banyuwangi regent in mid-September to collect the names of accused sorcerers in order to move them out of the area backfired. Various versions of the list started circulating - revealing new targets. Not only suspected deviants but devout Muslims and ordinary farmers, like Noha, became victims. Ulamas in Muslim boarding schools report threats over the phone, or unsettling visits by strangers.
National leaders give the impression they know more than they are revealing.
National police chief Lt.-Gen. Rusmanhadi maintains that the culprits could be Communists or their descendants. His may be an unlikely theory. But the police chief's reference to the 1960s is instructive. Suharto's New Order, he believes, heightened the tendency.