15 arrested over attacks in Indonesia's Sulawesi

JAKARTA, Nov 1 (Reuters) Fifteen people have been arrested over a series of attacks since 2001 mainly targeting Christians in Indonesia's restive Central Sulawesi province, police said today.

The men were suspected of involvement in 13 attacks including last year's beheading of three Christian schoolgirls in the violence-hit region of Poso and the murder of a female priest and a prosecutor in 2004, provincial police spokesman Muhammad Kilat said by telephone.

Police are still looking for another 26 people.

''There are 26 perpetrators of terror cases in Palu and Poso who are still fugitives. They were involved in bombings, killings and other violence over there. All of them are civilians,'' Indonesian police chief Sutanto told reporters in Jakarta.

Asked if the suspects were from the militant Jemaah Islamiah network, blamed for bombings in Bali and Jakarta, Sutanto said: ''We are talking about individuals. Don't flaunt (group) names like that.'' Poso has been tense since the executions in September of three Christian militants for leading a mob that killed scores of Muslims during inter-religious violence that gripped the region from 1998-2001.

Kilat said 20 Christians had been arrested for murdering two Muslims and attacking a police station during protests against the executions.

''We are not taking sides in the conflict. We don't see their religion or their ethnic background,'' Kilat said.

Three years of 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 Muslim and Christians.

REUTERS MS KP1016