Indonesia says 15 Aceh rebels killed, plans long campaign

12.45pm

BANDA ACEH, Indonesia - Indonesian forces clashed on Wednesday with separatist rebels in the western province of Aceh, as the military said it was digging in for a campaign of up to six months.

The Sweden-based rebel leadership called on the United Nations to intervene immediately to halt the attack launched on Monday by government forces after peace talks collapsed.

An Indonesian military spokesman, M Solih, said fighting between government troops and rebels began shortly after dawn in the Bireun area, 150km from the provincial capital Banda Aceh, and was continuing in the afternoon.

The military said it had killed 15 fighters of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) since the offensive began, while GAM sources in Aceh estimated 20 civilians had been killed. The figures could not be independently confirmed.

Aceh military chief Major General Endang Suwarya said late on Wednesday there had been no civilian casualties, but the military would give orders to shoot on sight anyone involved in burning, looting or kidnapping.

"In order to maintain security and order, the authority of the military operation in Aceh believes it is necessary to give orders for on the spot shooting to paralyse anyone who conducts (those activities)," Suwarya told reporters in Banda Aceh.

Indonesia, which has tried and failed to defeat the rebels many times before, has amassed 45,000 troops and police in the province on the northern tip of Sumatra -- with more to come. But commanders said they foresaw no quick victory.

"This war definitely can't be won in weeks like the US did in Iraq. The rebels have blended in in this guerrilla war," senior military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Achmad Yani Basuki told Reuters.

The offensive, which began with troops parachuting into the province, is aimed at crushing a 27-year-old rebellion by the GAM, which numbers about 5000 fighters.

More than 10,000 people have died since the conflict began, most of them civilians.

Suwarya said Indonesian forces killed a total of 10 GAM rebels on Wednesday, most of them in Bireun where he said a bus had been torched and a state radio station burned down.

He also said troops in helicopters fired missiles on a rebel training camp on Nasi Island, off the northernmost tip of Aceh.

"Troops have landed on the island and the pursuit for the rebels there is still going on. We predict 40 rebels are there."

Indonesia has sent elite military and police reinforcements to parts of the oil- and gas-rich province where the government says nearly 200 schools have been torched by separatist rebels, an officer said on Wednesday.

GAM has denied burning schools, but Basuki said captured rebels had revealed a plan to carry out a scorched-earth campaign that included torching schools and government buildings.

The government offensive followed the collapse of last-ditch talks to rescue a five-month ceasefire.

In Stockholm, Mahmood Malik, whom GAM considers its prime minister, blamed Jakarta for breaking off the weekend talks in Tokyo and said it had "declared war" on the province.

"We appeal to the United Nations for its immediate involvement in the resolution of the Aceh conflict and for an international fact-finding mission to be sent to Aceh to investigate the crimes against humanity that have been committed," a communique said.

Malik also called on countries which supplied arms to Indonesia to prohibit their use in the province.

- REUTERS