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 oldiers killed at least five suspected rebels of the Free Acheh Movement (GAM) and wounded several others on Thursday in two skirmishes in the Trumon region of South Acheh, said a military spokesman, Major Ertoto.
The troops seized 600 rounds of ammunition, he said. A local GAM spokesman was not available for comment.
A rebel spokesman, Sofyan Daud, said security forces shot dead four GAM guerrillas at Blang Seureke village in North Acheh on Wednesday night. Daud said the rebels were unarmed and attacked while they were sleeping. Two other residents remain missing after being arrested by police, Daud said.
A military spokesman, Major Zaenal Muttaqin, said two rebels were killed in a raid on their hideout in West Acheh's Kuala region on Thursday.
But a local GAM commander, Abu Arafah, said instead of killing separatists, the troops shot dead four civilians there. Independent reports confirmed four deaths in the Kuala region.
On Thursday the top security minister, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, said the government was giving GAM "one last chance for dialogue" but ruled out discussing independence.
He indicated that he wanted a response from the rebels by February 11, when a previous government decree on the Acheh situation expires.
Jakarta has held peace negotiations in Switzerland with GAM's exiled leadership in recent years but ceasefires have always broken down.
The government on Thursday also agreed to revive the provincial-level military command in Acheh, which was closed in 1985. The date of its re-establishment was still being studied.
The plan to revive the command has drawn criticism from human rights activists. They see it as an attempt by the military, accused of gross rights abuses in Acheh, to reassert its territorial grip.
Jakarta last year granted Acheh greater self-rule and a larger share of oil and gas revenues. It also allowed the staunchly Muslim region on the tip of Sumatra island to implement Islamic law, or sharia. But President Megawati Sukarnoputri, a daughter of the country's founding president Sukarno, has set her face firmly against independence.
The previous government last year declared GAM an illegal organization and sent troops to crack down on the rebels, resulting in a surge of violence.
An estimated 10,000 people have been killed since then. More than 1,700 people died last year and 67 have been killed since the start of 2002.
© 2002 Agence France-Presse. All rights reserved.
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