JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) -- Soldiers patrolled towns and villages on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi Monday as thousands of people continued to flee fighting between Muslims and Christians.
Asmara Nababan, a member of the government's National Human Rights Commission, said the situation in central Sulawesi was quickly deteriorating and the violence was continuing despite the patrols.
He said the predominantly Christian town of Tentena was surrounded by Muslim fighters who were threatening to attack it.
"The situation is critical," Nababan said. "We are afraid that there is going to be a lot of violence."
In other towns, including the seaside community of Poso, Muslims had fled their homes and were staying at police stations and military barracks, said a local army officer, Sgt. Burhan.
"It is very tense here. Shops are closed as townsfolk are scared of more trouble," said Burhan, who like many Indonesians uses one name. "Troops are guarding the streets."
In the latest clash, police shot to death a rioter and wounded five after a Muslim mob attacked a church in Poso on Monday, residents said.
Nababan said three human rights investigators were dispatched to the region on Monday to investigate why the "police and military seemed unable to stop the conflict."
Fighting between Muslim and Christian villagers in Sulawesi, about 1,000 miles northeast of Jakarta, has claimed at least 1,000 lives in the last two years.
After dying down earlier this year, the fighting flared again a few weeks ago. At least eight people have been killed in the past week.
Hundreds of extra police and soldiers were recently sent to the region.
Analysts say the administration of President Megawati Sukarnoputri has been slow to rein in the militants because she is indebted to conservative Muslim parties that backed her ouster of reformist president Abdurrahman Wahid in July.
A Muslim paramilitary group, Laskar Jihad, has been accused of stoking the latest violence in Sulawesi.
Hundreds of its followers have traveled to Sulawesi from the nearby Maluku islands, where they were involved in a two-year conflict between Muslims and Christians. An estimated 9,000 people are believed to have been killed in fighting there.
Last week, the United Nations warned that increasing tension on Sulawesi could trigger a flood of refugees.