The fragile peace pact in Indonesia's troubled Aceh province has come under further strain, with the office of an international peace monitoring group attacked on the weekend, the second attack in little over a month. Some 300-people ransacked the Tripartite Monitoring Team office in East Aceh, destroying computer and other equipment before torching the empty building. Security officials say the mob was protesting against alleged hostage taking by the separatist Free Aceh Movement or GAM.

They also called for the disbanding of the Joint Security Committee, which is supervising the implementation of the December peace deal between Jakarta and GAM. The Geneva-based Henry Dunant Centre which brokered the truce, says the latest attack is a clear attempt to undermine the peace process.

Transcript:

Daly: "Yeah, I would say that we're in a fragile state. That said I think it's important to remember that before December 9th and average of 230 people were getting killed a month in Aceh, and right now we're still in a state of relatively stable security where people are not dying even close to those numbers. We're only seeing about 15 people getting killed a month and we all knew that there would be tough times in this peace process and we've entered into one of those tough times and it's up to both parties to exhibit the commitment to come out the other side of this period."

Lopresti: Obviously though the security of the safety of the peace monitoring group is a concern. What has being done to ensure that security is now being stepped up in Aceh?

Daly: "Well several things, obviously the security of our monitors is our primary concern and thankfully no-one was injured yesterday."

"About two weeks ago, we following several other incidents of threats and intimidation against the monitors, the HDC, the Henry Dunant United Centre formally asked the government of Indonesia to provide us with a 24 hour police presence monitoring officers. So that's one thing that we've put into place to try to ensure the security."

"I think the most important thing though is that we're in constant contact with our monitors and we're serving the security situation in each district. We're going to be very quick to try to prevent this sort of thing from happening again."

Lopresti: You say that you'd gone to Jakarta for help, but there are reports that the Indonesian military was up to its old tricks of using civilian proxies to create unrest, to create what happened on Sunday and in March.

Daly: "Well, I certainly hope that isn't the case and if it is the case I hope that the government and particularly those who are in strong support of peace in Aceh and can address that situation."

Lopresti: Given that this the second attack on peacekeepers in just over a month, plus the demilitarisation process is currently at a stalemate, is the peace deal on the verge of collapse?

Daly: "Yeah, the militarisation process has gone slowly. It's something that's very difficult to achieve and both parties are obliged under the agreement to carry out a simultaneous dimilitarisation for GAM it's the placement of weapons and for the government of Indonesia, relocation of their troops and the reformulation of their paramilitary force, and yeah it's gone slowly and the two parties have not been able to agree on a full implementation of the demilitarisation process. And I urge both parties to carry out demilitarisation, but what we've seen so far is no-one has placed, noone has relocated and noone has reformulated and that certainly can't go on forever."