Executions spark violence in Central Sulawesi, East Nusa Tenggara
Jakarta Post, September 22, 2006

PALU, Central Sulawesi (Agencies): Executions of three Christian militants for allegedly leading attacks on Muslims six years ago that left at least 70 dead, sparked sectarian violence.
Mobs torched cars and police posts in Central Sulawesi, according to residents and local police chief.
Security forces fired warning shots to disperse crowds who burned a prison - freeing scores of inmates -blockaded roads and looted Muslim-owned shops in East Nusa Tenggara's town of Atambua.
On the island of Flores, the executed men's birthplace, machete-wielding mobs ran through the streets, sending women and children running in panic.
In Jakarta, Vice President Jusuf Kalla appealed for calm, saying the deaths of the Roman Catholic men had nothing to do with religion. "It's a matter of law." "If the people resent the law, we are doomed," he was quoted by AP as saying.
Hundreds of people in Atambua attacked a prison, causing the escape of 190 prisoners. Earlier, the mobs attacked Atambua Prosecutors's Office and burned official house of the office head, located just next to the office. A car in the house was also burned during the incident.
"The prisoners escape because the mobs destroyed the main gate of the prison," head of the Law and Human Rights office in East Nusa tenggara Soetomo Harardjo was quoted by Antara news agency as saying Friday.
There were only 15 prisoners, who wanted to stay in their cells during the incident, but later report said that 20 of the escaping inmates had returned back.
Fabianus Tibo, 60, Marinus Riwu, 48, and Dominggus da Silva, 42, were taken from their tightly guarded prison and executed at 1:45 a.m. local time (1745 GMT Thursday) on the southern outskirts of Palu, said I Wayan Pasek Suartha, a spokesman for the attorney general.
They were found guilty of leading a Christian militia that launched a series of attacks in May 2000 - including a machete and gun assault on an Islamic school that left at least 70 men dead.
It was one of the most brutal attacks during sectarian violence that swept Sulawesi province from 1998 in 2002, killing more than 1,000 people from both faiths. A peace deal largely ended the bloodshed, though isolated attacks have continued. (**) -->