Banda Aceh – Plans by a paramilitary group to hold its first mass rally in Indonesia's Aceh province flopped yesterday, following strong objections from separatist rebels and other Acehnese.

Laskar Jihad chief Jaffar Umar Thalib took over the podium at the main Baiturrahman mosque in the provincial capital Banda Aceh following late afternoon prayers, witnesses said.

But there were only about 100 people inside the mosque, half of them from Laskar Jihad, when he began his sermon on "how Muslims should be aware of Christians and the Jews". The Islamic group brought its own speaker and microphone. Mosque officials, who opposed plans for the rally, were not present during his speech.

Laskar Jihad has waged a "holy war" against Christians in Maluku islands and at Poso in Central Sulawesi.

But the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) protested against the group's planned incursion into Aceh, saying it is not waging a religious war but a struggle against the government in Jakarta.

GAM rebel spokesman Ayah Sofyan said last week that GAM intelligence suggested that the Indonesian armed forces were backing the mass rally plan by the Java-based group.