Police fired warning shots to disperse angry mobs in Wahid's home province of East Java, where many revere the Indonesian president as an Islamic holy man, and an opposition party official's home was attacked on Sumatra island. The violence raged a day before Parliament was expected to ask Indonesia's highest legislative body, the People's Consultative Assembly, to impeach Wahid over alleged involvement in two multimillion-dollar financial scandals. Lawmakers said they will push ahead with the ouster campaign despite the violence and an announcement Monday by the attorney general that prosecutors had cleared Wahid of any wrongdoing. In East Java, security forces fired warning shots when hundreds of people protested outside a police stations after four men were arrested for setting fire to a church and throwing stones at another in the town of Pasuruan on Tuesday.
Christians are a minority in mainly Muslim Indonesia and churches are often attacked during unrest.
On Monday, mobs burned a mosque belonging to an Islamic grouping that is a rival of Wahid's own religious organization and two offices of the party headed by popular Vice President Megawati Sukarnoputri, who is likely to replace Wahid if he is removed. Hundreds of police and soldiers fired warning shots to disperse crowds that tried to invade the regional legislature, and dozens of armored vehicles drove through Surabaya's streets. Islam and mysticism blur among Wahid's followers in East Java, who claim God chose him to lead the nation. Authorities said gasoline bombs were thrown at the home of an opposition party official in Bandar Lumpung, on the southern tip of Sumatra island about 125 miles northwest of Jakarta. In the capital, armored vehicles were deployed around Parliament and the nearby Jakarta Convention Center, where leaders of the G-15 group of developing nations were to meet Wednesday.