Christopher Torchia, Jakarta – Mobs burned buildings, stoned police cars and attacked ethnic Chinese in northern Indonesia on Monday in the biggest riot since deadly unrest in May helped oust former President Suharto.

The violence in Lhokseumawe, a town in Aceh province, was triggered by bitterness toward the military but ended up targeting Indonesia's Chinese minority, a traditional scapegoat. Soldiers fired warning shots of tear gas but the rioters still left a wide path of destruction, burning a hotel, a ruling party office and part of a shopping center. Many Chinese-owned stores were pelted with rocks.

The Chinese are resented because they dominate business in Indonesia, which is struggling through its worst economic crisis in three decades. A human rights activist, Burhan, said by telephone that he saw a mob throwing stones at a Chinese man. It was not known if the man was hurt, and there were no immediate reports of arrests or injuries.

The unrest in Lhokseumawe erupted after more than 660 Indonesian soldiers left Aceh in a conciliatory gesture by the military, which is accused of atrocities there. When the troops pulled out after a ceremony, some spectators pelted their vehicles with stones, shouting "Pigs! Dogs!".

A resident of Lhokseumawe said teen-agers in school uniforms set fire to the office of the ruling Golkar party, which has lost credibility for buttressing Suharto's 32 years of autocratic rule. "Many windows were broken, while heaps of debris and stones were scattered along the streets," said the resident, Sugito. "Smoke billowed into the sky after people burned a hotel." Mobs blocked fire trucks that tried to reach the hotel, a fire brigade official said.