Gunman shot dead a Christian priest today in Indonesia

JAKARTA, Oct 16: An unidentified gunman shot dead a Christian priest today in Indonesia's Central Sulawesi province, where relations between Muslims and Christians are fragile, local media reported.

A witness told the Antara national news agency that Reverend Irianto Kongkoli was shot in the head when he was buying construction materials at a shop in the provincial capital of Palu, 1,650 km (1,030 miles) northeast of Jakarta.

The situation in Central Sulawesi has been tense since the executions of three Christian militants over their role in Muslim-Christian violence that gripped the province's Poso region from 1998 to 2001.

The three Christian militants were executed on Sept. 22 by a police firing squad despite appeals from Pope Benedict and rights groups.

About 800 extra police and troops have been sent to Poso town due to the latest inter-religious tensions. Two Muslim men were killed last month by a crowd angered by the executions.

The three-year sectarian clashes in Central Sulawesi killed more than 2,000 people before a peace accord took effect in late 2001. There has been sporadic violence ever since.

Around 85 per cent of Indonesia's 220 million people follow Islam, but some areas in eastern Indonesia have roughly equal numbers of Muslims and Christians.

Three Islamic militants are on death row for the 2002 Bali bombings that killed 202 people.

Their lawyers have said they would file a final appeal with the Supreme Court, arguing that the retroactive anti-terror legal provisions used to convict them had since been annulled.

Reuters