Banda Aceh – Indonesian police and separatist rebels in Aceh province on Monday welcomed a three-month truce extension with a landmark clause on efforts to find a political solution. But civilian groups immediately demanded a voice in the dialogue, and said it would be meaningless if they were left out.

Differences were also apparent in the preception of the truce – extended until January 15, 2001 – with police saying they would continue patrolling, and the separatist Free Aceh Movement (GAM) saying they would attack any patrols.

A joint statement issued in Switzerland on Monday said both sides had agreed on Sunday to a "second phase of the Humanitarian Pause" and "to enter into exploratory talks in order to arrive at a lasting and comprehensive political solution for Aceh."

In Jakarta Foreign Ministry spokesman Sulaiman Abdulmanan said the truce now had "more substance." "There will be discussion on a political solution to the Aceh problem during this second phase," Abdulmanan said. It is the first time the two sides have agreed to an open political dialogue since the GAM rebels began fighting for a separate Islamic state in 1976.

The joint press statement said the agreement included a commitment to "significantly improve the effectiveness" of the truce. "In this connection the parties agreed initially to expand the Monitoring Teams to the four most affected districts," it said.

When the truce was first signed in May both sides made it clear they were sticking to their own goals – Jakarta to keep Aceh as a part of Indonesia, and the GAM to keep pushing for independence.

Aceh police chief Brigadier General Doddy Sumantyawan told AFP that police supported the truce's extension, but would continue sending patrols into villages. "We will keep making routine patrols in the villages to create calm and enforce the law," he said.

But in declaring the rebels' support for the ceasefire extension, spokesman Abu Sofyan Daud, deputy commander of the rebels' North Aceh chapter, threatened to attack troops who continued to carry out patrols. "If they still conduct patrols in the villages to search for GAM members, we will attack them," Daud told AFP.

Both sides accuse each other of violating the truce. GAM says Indonesian troops have killed more than 65 of its fighters since the truce came into effect on June 2. More than 20 Indonesian troops have been killed, the army says.

Students and rights activists in Aceh said the people must be involved in the political dialogue for it to have any meaning. "That political dialogue must incorporate the aspirations of all the community by also involving students, non-government organisations, and ulemas [Muslim teachers]," the head of the Aceh Referendum Information Center, Mohammad Nazar, told AFP.

Nazar also said that troops from outside the province should be withdrawn ahead of any dialogue. "If the security in Aceh is not conducive, the political dialogue must be delayed," he told AFP.

The founder of the Aceh-based Care Human Rights Forum, Abdullah Ghani Nurdin, said civilian role in the dialogue was crucial. "The nature of the agenda for political dialogue must ... involve civilian movements also," he said.

Meanwhile killings continued in Aceh over the weekend, despite the truce. Four civilians were killed in Madat village in East Aceh during a gunfight between troops and guerrillas, district police chief Superintendent Abdullah Hayati said. He said those killed were GAM members.

But villagers contacted by AFP said the victims were farmers shot dead as they returned home from the rice fields. "Since Sunday morning troops have been sweeping peoples' homes here. They've been shooting at the air, scaring people," a villager said.

A policeman was wounded when he was shot by two unknown people in Pidie district, Hayati said, and four civilians were wounded in a grenade attack in the North Aceh village of Pantonlabu. Police there said GAM guerillas threw the grenade at a police post, but a spokesman for the rebels denied doing so.

A shootout in the centre of the provincial capital, Banda Aceh, on Sunday night left a policeman and a teenager seriously injured, Aceh Besar police said.