Indonesian police arrest four over Sulawesi attacks

JAKARTA, Jan 11 (Reuters) Indonesian police arrested four people today for their role in violence which followed the execution of three Christian militants in September, police said.

The arrests came after five men threw explosives at police when they raided a house in the troubled region of Poso in Central Sulawesi, Poso police chief Rudy Sufariady told Reuters.

Several weapons, including three machineguns, were found during the raid in which the fifth man was killed.

''We were bombed 18 times (during the raid),'' Sufariady said. ''We found five organic weapons such as (one) M-16, an Uzi (sub-machinegun) and a revolver ... No civilians or police were injured.'' Central Sulawesi has been tense since the execution of the three Christian militants over their role in the Muslim-Christian violence that gripped the region from 1998 to 2001.

In October, an armed group clashed with police and set fire to a Christian church in Poso, while a Christian priest was shot in Palu, sparking fears of a return to the sectarian violence that once gripped the region.

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 SP HT1218