Banda Aceh – A mob yesterday attacked the office of an international peace monitoring team in Aceh, injuring one Indonesian soldier and one rebel representative, police said.

Indonesia's military commander in Aceh said the crowd gathered after residents accused the monitors, from a security committee supervising a December 9 peace deal, of failing to respond to complaints against Free Aceh Movement (GAM) rebels.

Some 6,000 people gathered at the office of the monitoring team in Takengon, the main town of Central Aceh district, Aceh Military Spokesman Lt-Colonel Firdaus said.

The anger, he said, was directed at GAM for demanding a huge ransom for a local coffee grower the rebels had abducted and kept hostage. Local journalists put the mob at around 5,000 people.

But Mr David Gorman, spokesman for the Henry Dunant Centre (HDC) which monitors the implementation of the peace accord it had brokered between Jakarta and the GAM in December, put it at more than 1,000 people.

After surrounding the office, the mob suddenly attacked it, vandalising it, intimidating and threatening the members of the monitoring team before Indonesian security personnel came and evacuated the monitors. Two cars were set on fire and another vandalised, Mr Gorman said.

The nine members in the office were three Indonesians representing the government, three representing the GAM and three Thai officers representing the HDC.

Two members of the team were injured by the mob, Lt-Col Firdaus said. One is a representative of the Indonesian side, a military police major, and the other a representative of the GAM in the team, he added.

Witnesses in Banda Aceh, who saw the two injured men arrive on board a helicopter and taken to a military hospital, said the GAM representative, Mr Husni Jalil, had a swollen face and could not walk by himself. The Indonesian soldier was bleeding from his nose.

Mr Gorman said the HDC will send a team to Takengon to investigate the incident within the next two days. "We condemn this incident and we will take it very seriously. A case like this can harm the peace process in Aceh," he said.

GAM deputy military spokesman Isnandar Paseh suspected the attack was targeting their representatives. The attack "was surely coordinated by the Pujakesuma militia and the threats were mostly against the international and GAM members of the team", he said.