Aceh separatist rebels slammed a statement by an Indonesian minister branding them terrorists as an "irresponsible and desperate" attempt to discredit the movement.
Top security minister Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono announced Thursday the government planned to declare a state of civil emergency in Aceh province if parliament approved the proposal and called Free Aceh Movement (GAM) rebels "terrorists".
Yudhoyono said the rebels merited the terrorist tag because they had carried out a recent series of murders, kidnappings and arson attacks.
"Susilo should not have thrown around such an irresponsible accusation, especially in relation to the killing of the district legislators in which GAM has no interest whatsoever," said GAM field commander Amri bin Abdul Wahab, in a statement received on Saturday.
Two district lawmakers were killed last month. The military has blamed the separatists. "Susilo's statement branding GAM as a terrorist organization is just a desperate effort to change public opinion through the press, while the whole world is very much aware that GAM is not a terrorist organization, but a legitimate independence movement that upholds international law and conventions," bin Abdul Wahab said.
The government and GAM agreed on truces during successive meetings in Switzerland since 2000 but the ceasefires have rarely held.
Bin Abdul Wahab said Yudhoyono was "at the end of his wits" because of what he called the government's failure to cause a rift between GAM's Sweden-based political leadership and those in the field.
He said Yudhoyono's remarks were an emotional outburst resulting from too many casualties suffered by security forces during its military offensives. The commander warned that more "innocent" government troops would lose their lives if Jakarta pursued its anti-rebel operations.
In the latest violence, troops killed two suspected rebels on Friday in a gunfight at Rantau Selamat in East Aceh, provincial military spokesman Major Zaenal Muttaqin said. A rifle was seized from the victims, he said.
The government has in recent days been intensifying its rhetoric against the separatists. On Wednesday President Megawati Sukarnoputri called for stern action against them.
On Thursday GAM released nine crewmen seized from an oil company supply ship and nine athletes and sports officials they abducted late last month. GAM said they were released after they were found to be civilians and not involved in military operations. The nine crewmen were seized Sunday from a vessel headed for an oil exploration field off North Aceh. The rebels previously denied involvement.
GAM has been fighting since 1976 for an independent state in the province. An estimated 10,000 people have been killed since then, 600 of them this year alone.