AFP, March 16, 2004

Banda Aceh, Aceh: A court in the restive province of Aceh has jailed a separatist rebel for 18 years for his role in the murder of two policemen last year, a judge said Tuesday.

Nadaruddin bin Muhammad was convicted Monday of being an accessory to the premeditated murder of the two policemen by four other members of the separatist Free Aceh Movement (GAM) last August, Judge Fauzi said.

The two officers were guarding a bank in Bireuen district when they were killed and their weapons seized.

Courts in Aceh have jailed scores of GAM rebels and alleged sympathisers since the government launched an all-out military offensive to crush rebels in May last year. The military says it has killed more than 1,300 rebels during the offensive.

The military said Tuesday that troops had shot dead four guerrillas in two separate clashes in East Aceh over the past two days. Three automatic rifles and hundreds of rounds of ammunition were seized.

Residents in the district on Monday also discovered an unidentified corpse with marks of severe torture, said provincial military spokesman Asep Sapari.

GAM has been fighting since 1976 for independence for the province on the northern tip of Sumatra island.