JAKARTA, Nov 8 (Reuters) - Indonesian prosecutors demanded 20 years in prison for 10 suspected Islamic militants accused of deadly attacks against Christians in a religiously divided region of Sulawesi island, a prosecutor said on Thursday.

The attacks included the assassination of a Protestant minister, the beheading of three Christian schoolgirls and a bomb attack in a market that killed 22 people.

Bayu Adhi Nugroho, one of the prosecutors for the case, said the 10 defendants, who were arrested earlier this year and charged under anti-terrorism laws, appeared in separate courtrooms at the South Jakarta District Court on Wednesday.

The attacks took place in central Sulawesi's Poso region, which was the scene of Muslim-Christian fighting between 1999 and 2001 that killed more than 2,000 people.

A peace accord took effect in 2001, but there has been sporadic violence since and prosecutions against those involved have been rare.

Three Christians convicted of leading a group that killed scores of Muslims at a boarding school in Poso in 2000 were executed last year.

Twenty years is the minimum sentence prescribed by the country's tough anti-terrorism laws.

Among the 10 defendants are Muhammad Basri and Adrin Djanatu, who police believe were the leaders of a local group allegedly linked to the regional militant network Jemaah Islamiah. Jemaah Islamiah is blamed for a string of deadly attacks in the country, including the 2002 nightclub bombings on the resort island of Bali, which killed more than 200 people, many of them foreigners. Hundreds of militants allegedly linked to Jemaah Islamiah have been arrested since the Bali bombings.

Around 85 percent of Indonesia's 220 million people are Muslim, but in some areas in the country's east, such as Poso, there are roughly equal numbers of Muslims and Christians. (Writing by Adhityani Arga; Editing by Alex Richardson)

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