It`s the day before Christmas in the village of Sanginora on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi. But for this Christian community, there`s not much to celebrate. These people have lost everything. Not a single home remains standing. Families have been separated, loved ones murdered. Everything they now own, including the chairs they carry to church, has been donated.

CHILDREN SING: "Oh dear Lord, how much longer are your children to endure this oppression as a result of the unrest?"

Most of the people in Reverend Marson`s congregation are refugees from nearby villages. They are only the latest victims of the vicious sectarian war that has divided eastern Indonesia. In Central Sulawesi, the violence has already claimed up to 2,000 lives. Late November last year, the militant Islamic group Laskar Jihad led a mob along this road looting and destroying five Christian villages. The orgy of violence lasted almost three days.

REVEREND MARSON, (Translation): I could heare many eople crying out "Allahu akbar!" And in their midst, I could see a man in white robes. There were armed men to his left and right, and behind him, guarding him.

Reverend Marson was amongst those trying to defend their villages, but they were heavily outnumbered and were forced, with hundreds of others, to flee to the forests. After almost a month living in fear with little food or shelter, people are only now starting to return.

REVEREND MARSON (Translation): He said there was the smell of corpses. When he came down from his farm. There was a smell.

Everyone here tells the same story - attackers armed with modern weapons, a supply of bullets that never dried up.

WOMAN IN VILLAGE (Translation): I could hear bombs. I could see many fires alight. There was smoke from burning houses.

This is not the first time this family has had to rebuild their lives. They`re refugees from a previous attack on another village.

WOMAN IN VILLAGE (Translation): We could only save some of the things we brought here. Now I miss all the things we lost. It`s very difficult for all of us. It`s a very hard life.

Reverend Marson is so distraught about what`s happening in Central Sulawesi, he`s made a pact not to cut his hair until peace returns. His hair has been growing long now for over three years.

The story of this conflict begins three years ago, not far from Sanginora in the district capital, Poso. This was once a vibrant community, home to 40,000 people, both Christians and Muslims. It`s now a Muslim town of around 5,000. The district chief Jacob Lumansik took me to where the trouble started.

JACOB LUMANSIK (Translation): This is the Sayuh Darussalam Mosque. This is where the very first incident took place in Poso. When a drunken boy entered the mosque. This is the proof of it. Blood stains.

In December 1998, two young men - one Muslim and one Christian - had a drunken fight. The Muslim boy was stabbed.

JACOB LUMANSIK (Translation): There are stains up here where the blood splattered.

Although the facts about that incident are still disputed, what we do know is that shortly afterwards, fighting began in earnest and the first of almost 10,000 homes and places of worship were destroyed.

JACOB LUMANSIK (Translation): When it first happened no one could have guessed it would flare up like this. We thought it was just a fight between some young boys, but suddenly all the teenagers from all over town gathered.

But not much happens spontaneously in Indonesia. Most civil unrest is coordinated or funded in some way, usually by elements of the military and Jakarta`s corrupt elite. They often use religion to create chaos to protect their own interests. Central Sulawesi, a region once known for its tolerance, quickly descended into violence. And now all that`s left is hatred and mistrust.

REPORTER: Do you think the Muslims and the Christians in Poso can live together once more?

WOMAN IN MOSQUE (Translation): From the viewpoint of the Muslims, that might not be possible because too many Muslims have died. Their families...I may accept it, but others might not be able to.

Over the last three years, more Muslims than Christians have been killed, but most of the victims in the first 18 months were Christian. The Muslims don`t like to talk about this. For them, the count starts in May 2000, with Christian retaliation. Ilham is one of the few survivors of the infamous Kilometre 9 massacre. If I provided the armed security, he greed to take me to the Islamic boarding school where the Muslims were attacked. It`s now in a Christian-held area. Ilham says he was tortured here for four hours.

REPORTER: What did they use to do this?

ILHAM, ISLAMIC MILITIA LEADER (Translation): Machetes and some used samurai swords. They then filled the open wound with soil, and doused it with vinegar and lemon juice.

Ilham says he was then loaded into a truck with 27 of his friends and driven to a nearby river.

ILHAM (Translation): We stopped about 10 metres from the river`s edge and were all told to get out, one after another. One by one, each man had his head chopped off.

He managed to escape to the river and spent all night hiding, then swimming the nine kilometres back to Poso. His friends, who were hiding in the mosque from the Christians, were not so lucky.

ILHAM (Translation): 63 people were killed in this mosque. My friends were asked to come out this door. As they did, they were beheaded. There was someone hiding behind the wall here. Once someone walked clear of the door, they`d lose their head. Everyone who went out was beheaded. There were 63 people in this mosque.

Christians claim the Kilometre 9 attack was a pre-emptive strike. They believed the Islamic boarding school was a weapons warehouse and the headquarters of the Muslim militia.

REVEREND AUGUSTINA LUMENTUT: They found so many weapons, home-made weapons.

Reverend Augustina Lumentut is a woman of great influence in Sulawesi. She has spent many years trying to build bridges between Christians and Muslims, but after Kilometre 9, she fears there`s little chance of restoring goodwill between the two groups.

REVEREND AUGUSTINA LUMENTUT: Our problem is - can we still trust each other?

REPORTER: You seem to regret that so many people died in Poso?

REVEREND AUGUSTINA LUMENTUT: Oh yes, yes. Whoever ask me about this situation, I always say "When I first know about this, yeah, I cried."

Muslim corpses floating down the Poso River galvanised support for the war against Christians, and paved the way for the official arrival of the Laskar Jihad two months later. Malik al-Jakarti is one of their three fresh-faced public relations officers in Poso.

MALIK AL-JAKARTI, LASKAR JIHAD, POSO (Translation): It is very clear. The problem is they have attacked and driven out our people here.

Having caused untold misery in the Maluku Islands to the east, last year Laskar Jihad moved thousands of its members to Central Sulawesi. It says it`s not there to fight. Its three missions are religious education, social work and self-defence.

MALIK AL-JAKARTI (Translation): There are courses aimed at young children. In addition we visit refugees, to return them to their homes. We coordinate it with the local government.

And how does Laskar Jihad justify the attacks on Christian villages last November?

MALIK AL-JAKARTI (Translation): It`s now the third mission. That`s defence. It is our duty to make the community feel safe.

What most concerns many Christian leaders now is the open support Laskar Jihad receives from all levels of government.

REVEREND AUGUSTINA LUMENTUT: Who dare among them to say "Stop doing that". Because they have reason for doing that, they are recognised officially by the government, the central government.

REPORTER: This is Laskar Jihad you`re talking about?

REVEREND AUGUSTINA LUMENTUT: Laskar Jihad. I think this is, who is to be challenged? I think the government. They have to be blamed.

REPORTER: The central government?

REVEREND AUGUSTINA LUMENTUT: The central government... in every level.

Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is Indonesia`s top political and security minister. While he seems aware of Laskar Jihad excesses, he defends their presence in Sulawesi.

SUSILO BAMBANG YUDHOYONO, MINISTER FOR POLITICS AND SECURITY: They also play a role in defending truth and justice that is expected by Muslims in Indonesia. For me, as far as what they are doing is legal, and not violating law, then this is OK.

Laskar Jihad`s connections go right to the top. Its leader, Jafar Umar Thalib, fought alongside Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan during the Soviet occupation. And as footage shows, he clearly has Indonesian vice-president Hamzah Haz on side. But the Indonesian Government now finds itself in an awkward position, because Thalib and his fundamentalist militia have been linked to al-Qa`ida. Although no-one has uncovered any hard evidence of a connection, the Indonesian Government is under increasing pressure to find one.

SUSILO BAMBANG YUDHOYONO: In Poso, we have instructed to conduct thorough operations to check its corner of Poso to find whether there is peculiarities in Poso and, of course, based on our intelligence mechanisms, we will find if there is any foreign elements in Poso.

REPORTER: Are you under a lot of pressure, from the Americans, for example, to try and get to the bottom of this?

SUSILO BAMBANG YUDHOYONO: Not pressure. But we understand that many countries, including the United States, the UK, even our ASEAN neighbours are very much concerned on the ongoing development in Indonesia as part of the spirit of combating terrorism worldwide.

Whatever their foreign connections, Laskar Jihad is now well-entrenched in Central Sulawesi. They have a sophisticated propaganda wing and when they spread the word that Christians are the aggressors, as they did last November, it`s not hard to rouse the Muslim masses.

MALIK AL-JAKARTI (Translation): When we hear of our brothers being threatened on their way to their farms, Muslims from town and surrounding areas, in their hundreds or even thousands, spontaneously converge on the place. If there were only a few of us, we couldn`t pacify or handle such a large group.

It would have taken less than an hour for the police or army to come to the villagers` aid. Instead, they left them to face their attackers alone. Christians say this is proof that the local security forces have taken sides.

REVEREND RINALDY DAMANIK, TENTENA CRISIS CENTR (Translation): We assume they`re biased because they arrive late. We contact the defence authorities in Poso. We even try doing the same for Palu, the provincial capital. These places are actually not very far from the defence offices. So why are they late? You`ve seen the distance between Tabalu and Sanginora. They carried on for two days on end. What action was taken? They only arrived when it was all over. Too late.

REPORTER: This attack on those villages went on and on. At night they retreated and the next morning they attacked again for at least two days.

SUSILO BAMBANG YUDHOYONO: How many days?

REPORTER: At least two.

SUSILO BAMBANG YUDHOYONO: No, I think that`s quite different again, because when I visited and checked the situations, during a week there are three incidents, actually. And yes, I have to admit that they should move quickly to stop the violence, but it could not because of so many factors. That is something we have to correct in the future.

REPORTER: It must be a concern that at the time of a conflict that sparks up so quickly, that the reaction cannot be quick enough to stop the destruction.

SUSILO BAMBANG YUDHOYONO: Your question is to be addressed to the captain, to major, to colonels who are commanding in the field.

Now there`s a daily procession of those commanders visiting Sanginora to save the day. First, it`s the Poso police chief.

REPORTER: What do you expect to see here?

COLONEL UNGGUNG CAHYONO, POSO POLICE CHIEF (Translation): To see our forces who are keeping the peace here over Christmas. It`s a check.

REPORTER: Are they all safe?

COL UNGGUNG CAHYONO: Yes, it`s guarantee. It`s guaranteed to be safe.

Later on, it`s a Major-General from Jakarta. Yusuf Mangaberani, the national head of the mobile police force, Brimob. It`s his men, a platoon of Balinese Hindus who are now guarding these villages.

MAJOR-GENERAL YUSUF MANGABERANI (Translation): Leave the clashes to the peacekeepers so you`re alright. I`ve ordered them to come down hard...on anyone, even a priest.

REPOTER: That`s it?

MAJOR-GENERAL YUSUF MANGABERANI: Not to be selective. To keep the peacekeepers honest.

The Major-General wants the refugees to start returning to their villages.

MAJOR-GENERAL YUSUF MANGABERANI: It should be in stages. The men come down first to meet the peacekeepers. Only when it is safe should they call for their families. The same goes for other villages. The men should go first to repair the houses.

But people here are still frightened and will not go without an armed police escort. This is the first time Reverend Marson and his friends have returned to the villages they tried in vain to defend. He`s keen to see the state of the church in Tangkura. It`s one of the biggest in the area and its congregation are now refugees in Sanginora.

REVEREND MARSON (Translation): The community here has yet to return. So this church hasn`t been cleaned up.

When it`s clear there`s no apparent danger, our police escorts go hunting and gathering to supplement their meagre daily rations. The people here know they are underpaid and under-resourced and it`s better to let them take what they need. It may just ensure their support if there`s another attack.

These villagers are on their way to the town of Tentena, the last Christian stronghold in Central Sulawesi. They can`t afford to pay for an armed escort to travel by road through Muslim-controlled territory, so there`s only one safe option, a long walk through the jungle. Tentena was a popular resort town in the hills set on Lake Poso. It, too, was once a mixed community, but now only 32 Muslims remain. Thousands of Christian refugees have fled here. And rumours are rife that it will be a bloody Christmas.

REVEREND RINALDY DAMANIK (Translation): It can be said that in a 50km radius around Tentena one, two, three, four, five different points have come under the control of Laskar Jihard. That is extraordinary.

Reverend Rinaldy Damanik runs the crisis centre in Tentena. He`s so outspoken that at various times he`s had a price on his head. A box of ammunition was found in another recently destroyed village. More evidence, he says, of the army`s support for the Muslims.

REVEREND RINALDY DAMANIK (Translation): This is an ammunition box that we found at the time of the attacks in Sepe. It is clearly labelled...Department of Defence, Republic of Indonesia. 1400 pieces of 5.56mm calibre munitions. This means it was meant for M-16s.

REVEREND AUGUSTINA LUMENTUT: It is for sure, for sure, that the army is behind the Jihad or in front of the Jihad, yeah. No other interpretation.

SUSILO BAMBANG YUDHOYONO: Both sides are complaining that the military and the police take side on the other side. But of course, we do understand that there must be one or two soldiers, that one or two policemen, are not respecting the neutrality. This is the work of the organisation to really control their soldiers, their policemen to stay neutral.

Christian and Muslim leaders signed a peace deal just before Christmas last year and thousands of weapons were surrendered. But with four failed peace agreements so far, people in Sanginora are understandably apprehensive on Christmas Eve. In the end, Christmas passed quietly, but before the year was out, there was more violence in the provincial capital, Palu. On New Year`s Eve, four bombs exploded outside these churches. It was an act of terror, designed to provoke a reaction from Christians.

SUSILO BAMBANG YUDHOYONO: There must be individuals for their own benefit who try to maintain "the conflicts" that occur in Poso.

REPORTER: So you mean local politics, or national politics - what do you mean?

SUSILO BAMBANG YUDHOYONO: I cannot specify what are the people, but my logic says that there must be a group of people who are enjoying that kind of situations.

CHILDREN SING (Translation): "Christmas is upon us once more. We find ourselves in the ruins of your kindness. We hope and pray your peace will be everlasting. Though storms may break over us, though we are forced to suffer, we will always worship You."