Jakarta – Shops were back in business in the small West Java town of Labuan on Thursday, a day after hundreds of people attacked three ethnic Chinese-owned shops there, police said there. "All shops are open again today, including the Ayung, Babah Java and Nang Tung shops," said Corporal Unang of the police in Labuan, a sleepy town on the southwestern coast of West Java.

The three shops had been attacked by a mob on Wednesday following a brawl between a staff at the Babah Java shop and a customer over the high price of cigarettes. "People started to attack the Babah Java shop, damaging the shop and taking some of the goods there and two shops nearby were also attacked later," Unang said.

Onlookers gathered in front of the store suddenly burst into the shop and started looting staple goods such as sugar, coffee, cooking oil and flour, the Kompas daily said. "Things happened so fast. We had actually closed the store but people got through anyway. They broke the door open by force," store keeper Tono, 30, was quoted as saying by the daily.

Unang said four people were arrested following the attack and were still under questioning by police officers who had come from Pandeglang, the main town of the district that includes Labuan. No one was injured during the incident, Unang said.

In a separate incident of violence late Wednesday, a mob of thousands ransacked a nightspot area in Cilegon, an industrial centre near the West Java town of Serang, Indonesia's Kompas daily reported Thursday. The 5,000-strong mob burned down a discotheque at the Mitra Sono Hotel and set three cars on fire, Kompas said.

Residents in Cilegon have expressed disapproval at the presence of night entertainment centres in the area which they said were used for prostitution. Fifteen rooms of the hotel, where the discotheque was located, and a van driven by two officers from the Kopassus elite corps were also damaged. The local police said there were no reports of injuries. Security forces managed to restore order in about two hours. No arrests were made.

The attacks took place a day after Indonesian President B.J. Habibie assured a group of Christian social activists in Jakarta that the state was obliged to protect its own people and that the government had taken important steps to enhance the respect and protection of human rights.

"We do not recognise discrimination among our own citizens based on race, ethnicity and religion. All citizens stand equal in front of the law and the government," he said on Wednesday.

The ethnic Chinese minority, a mere three percent of the population but dominant in the economy, has been the main target of mass violence in recent years, including the brutal May riots here and in several other Indonesian cities.