Marianne Kearney, Lhokseumawe – Amid an escalation of violence in the northern Sumatran province of Aceh and increasing demands for a referendum, Acehnese separatist rebels say they are ready for war.

A spokesman for the Aceh Merdeka rebel group said they are being forced to launch a war against the Indonesian army because of increasing troop numbers sent to Aceh and the scores of civilians killed in an incident earlier this month.

"They want us to kill them because they're looking at us very hard. Before they shoot us we must shoot them, before they find us we must kill them," spokesman Ismail Sahaputra said.

He said that in the last month, Aceh Merdeka has killed over 150 soldiers – including two successful attacks last week in which at least 35 soldiers were killed.

Since early May, scores of soldiers have been killed by pro-independence rebels, several buildings have been burnt, and over 50 civilians killed. Thousands of Acehnese have fled their homes.

Earlier this month, the army sent two battalions of crack riot troops, or about 450 soldiers, in response to increasing disturbances and demands for a referendum.

"If the situation is disturbing our people, of course we have to defend ourselves. We won't wait for another massacre," said an Aceh Merdeka guerilla referring to the massacre four weeks ago at Krueng Geukueh where troops opened fire on unarmed civilians, killing more than 50 people.

"Now, the situation here is worse than the first military operation from 1989 to 1998. Before, the army didn't kill people on the streets in broad daylight."

According to Mr Ismail, the rebels see their fight against the overwhelmingly stronger army as similar to the struggle of the Vietnamese against the American army.

"Even though America was so strong and had superior technology they lost in Vietnam. We can use hit-and-run tactics and with only three men kill many because we know our land and we know where to go," he said.

He added that from the group's intelligence, 7,000 troops had arrived in the past month, many of whom were not police, but members of the elite Kopassus force renowned for their brutality during the last military operation.

The north Aceh military commander had previously announced that only 450 riot police were being sent to the province.

Mr Ismail said an attack on two military trucks in west Aceh last week, which killed somewhere between nine to 15 soldiers, was part of their anti-military strategy.

"If all the troops are located in the north then we will attack in the west to make them very busy, so they won't know where to expect us," he said.

He warned that Aceh Merdeka would escalate such attacks in the coming weeks and contradicted military claims that only two soldiers were killed in the attack on the trucks, which were heading to the village of Peudada last Tuesday.

"More than 20 soldiers were killed there because we attacked two trucks full of soldiers," he said, adding that rebels also killed 108 soldiers in their most major attack – on a missile storage facility and military barracks outside Lhokseumawe on May 10.

Aceh Merdeka has begun pressuring transmigrants to leave their villages prior to the escalation of fighting.

Villagers outside Peudada received a letter from the group asking the "ethnic Javanese to return to their fatherland" and accusing them of co-operating with the military by giving information about rebel movements to army intelligence units.