'The shooting followed a sweep conducted by the armed group on people working in the fields. The farmers were gathered and then shot, killing 12 on site,...some of the militias are non-Acheh residents and they have the strong support of the Indonesian military,' —— TEUGKU ILHAM BIN ILYAS LEUBEE, GAM commander of central Acheh district

N UNIDENTIFIED GROUP OF ARMED MEN shot dead 12 civilian men in Geudong Teungoh in Central Acheh on Saturday, local GAM commander Teungku Ilham bin Ilyas Leubee told AFP by telephone.

"The shooting followed a sweep conducted by the armed group on people working in the fields. The farmers were gathered and then shot, killing 12 on site," Ilham said.

An officer at the operational control centre of the Acheh police in Banda Acheh contacted by telephone said that he had no report of the shooting.

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Ilham accused the Indonesian military of setting up and supporting local paramilitary military groups that "are often terrorizing the population."

"Some of the militias are non-Acheh residents and they have the strong support of the Indonesian military," Ilham said.

Meanwhile, the GAM spokesman of the Pidie district, Teungku Maad Muda, said soldiers were believed to have killed the chief of the Ujong Baroh village in Simpang Tiga sub-district.

The village chief was arrested late on Friday evening at his home and he was found dead the next morning with several gunshot wounds, Muda said.

A civilian shot dead from gunmen shootings.

A civilian was also found dead, shot in the head with his hands handcuffed, in Lhoksukon, North Acheh on Saturday, local Indonesian Red Cross official, Umar Adam, said.

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On Saturday four clashes took place in three separate locations in North Acheh, North Acheh Police Chief Adjunct Senior Commissioner Wanto Sumardi said.

In the only clash causing casualties, a joint military and police patrol was ambushed by some 20 rebels after it hit a landmine on a road in Meurah Mulia, he said, adding that the casualties were two civilians.

Local GAM deputy commander Sofyan Daud denied the ambush and accused the military of having injured the civilians during anti-rebel operations in the area.

The Indonesian government last week sent 11 companies of soldiers, about 1,100 men, to Acheh to rid the oil-and-gas rich province of separatist rebels.

GAM, which has been fighting for independence for the past 25 years, has warned Jakarta it would deploy tens of thousands of its guerrillas from its bases across the province to meet the incoming troops.

The government of President Abdurrahman Wahid has spent a year in talks with the Acheh rebels in Geneva, as a result of which a series of shaky truces have been implemented on the ground.

But the truces have failed to stop the violence and more than 400 people, many of them civilians, have been killed since the beginning of the year.

The article is distributed by Tapol in London