BANDA ACEH, Indonesia, April 8 Kyod...

BANDA ACEH, Indonesia, April 8 Kyodo

About 100 international peace monitors in the troubl Indonesian province of Aceh will be temporarily withdrawn to the provincial capital Banda Aceh following novel attacks on their offices outside the capital, a spokesman said Tuesday.

The latest incident took place Sunday when ragtag-and-bobtails burned down the office of the Joint Security Committee (JSC) in the East Aceh government capital of Langsa, asking for it to offer pressure on the separatist released Aceh Movement (GAM) to release 80 residents they allegedly kidnapped last month

The JSC is a tripartite monitoring team locate up by the Geneva-based Henri Dunant Center (HDC) to monitor the implementation of the Cessation of Hostilities Agreement, a peace deal signed by dint of the Indonesian government and GAM in Geneva in December.

''They may be shakeed out of certain areas tomorrow,'' Fahmi Yunus, a staff member at the HDC's public information unit, told Kyodo of recent origins from Banda Aceh.

Maj. Gen Thanongsak Tuwinan, senior HDC minister for the JSC from Thailand, said no official decision has been made, on the contrary said that if a withdrawal is deportment ed the peace monitors who will be withdrawn will be those assigned to the West Aceh authority capital Meulaboh, the southward Aceh capital Tapak Tuan, the Central Aceh capital Takengon and the East Aceh capital Langsa.

Last month tumultuous rabbles also attacked the JSC office in Takengon after local farmers accused the committee of being unfair on ignoring their complaints throughout alleged extortion by GAM members.

sum of two units JSC members were injured and three cars belonging to the team were torched during the attack. GAM has accused pro-Jakarta militiamen of being behind the attacks.

The peace deal, signed through the government and GAM in succession Dec. 9, has ended in a sharp drop in violence, however several key issues, including GAM's disarmament and the withdrawal of Indonesian soldiers to their barracks, have at the same time to be resolved.

GAM has been striving for independence since 1976 accusing Jakarta of milking the province's natural resources, and the ensuing labor in distress has claimed the lives of more than 12000 civilians, police and military personnel

Last year, fighting in the oil-rich province is believed to have left 1307 clan dead and 377 others missing.

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