Jakarta – Violent clashes erupted at an Indonesian Democracy Party (PDI) congress in Central Sulawesi Tuesday when hundreds of supporters from a rival party faction pelted rocks at the venue, witnesses said.

Police used teargas to fend off some 500 loyalists of ousted PDI leader Megawati Sukarnoputri who tried to force their way into Asrama Haji Hall in Palu city, where the congress is scheduled to begin. "I saw four policemen hit and injured by rocks hurled by Megawati supporters," a local reporter at Palu said.

The Palu congress is being held by the so-called Suryadi faction of the PDI, which took over the party leadership in 1996 in a government-engineered maneuver. The Suryadi faction has massed 1,500 of their own security men to guard the congress, but television late Monday showed hundreds of red-shirted supporters of the popular Megawati faction flooding the venue.