A British academic and an American nurse who visited a separatist rebel base in Indonesia's Aceh province were jailed for violating their tourist visas.

Briton Lesley McCulloch, 40, was sentenced to five months. Her travelling companion Joy Sadler, 57, who says she is terminally ill with an HIV-related condition, was jailed for four months.

The time they have already spent in detention since their arrest on September 11 will be deducted from the sentences, Judge Arsil Marwan said Monday.

Sadler, who appeared pale and very weak, wept as the verdict was announced but said she would continue a hunger strike she began on November 27. McCulloch said she would start fasting in sympathy with Sadler.

McCulloch said the military had pressured the court to convict her because it was angry over articles she has written for Asian media about its business dealings in Aceh.

Rights groups have accused security forces and rebels of widespread abuses including illicit business dealings in Aceh. A ceasefire has been in force since December 9.

"There are no witnesses and no evidence against me," McCulloch told AFP after the verdict. "It's just hatred, fear and paranoia." McCulloch said the court "is under pressure by the military, by the police and by many others.

"This sentence is based on what I did and wrote in the past," she said, noting that foreigners with visa problems are normally just deported. "So this is not because of my visa violation but becuase of my academic work." McCulloch is a teacher and researcher at Australia's Tasmania University.

She urged the international community to pressure Jakarta to reform its military and police and end their involvement in economic activities.

"I think I am just a victim of the mess of this country," she said. "But you know, what I suffered and what I will suffer in the next six weeks is nothing compared to what Acehnese people and other Indonesians suffer." Sadler told reporters she had lost 20 nine kg in weight since she stopped eating. "I feel I am very weak but I have a strong heart and strong mind," she said.

Sadler, from Waterloo in Iowa, said after the verdict that she hopes to return legally to Aceh as a humanitarian worker.

Prosecutors had recommended a nine-month jail sentence for the pair, who were arrested after visiting a base in South Aceh of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM). They were tried separately but in the same court in the provincial capital.

Judge Marwan said McCulloch's activities could "endanger the security and unity of the unitary republic of Indonesia" and she had not been straightforward during court proceedings.

He said he took into consideration the fact that Sadler was terminally ill and was still responsible for her nine children.

McCulloch said she and Sadler were moved a week ago from Aceh police headquarters to the Banda Aceh state penitentiary.

Prosecutors said the pair took photographs, gathered data and documents and provided medical treatment in a village when they were supposed to be on a tourist trip.

They said McCulloch had also met exiled Aceh separatist leader Hasan Tiro in Sweden and rebel negotiator Teuku Kamaruzzaman while in the province.

The judge said McCulloch, who is originally from Dunoon in Scotland, had tried to hide the photographs she took when soldiers arrested her.

The women had told the court they had no plans to visit the rebel-held area but could not refuse when armed men took them there.

An estimated 10,000 people have died since the separatist war began in the province on Sumatra island in 1976.