The United States State Department says serious human rights abuses occured in Indonesia last year.

It says Indonesian soldiers and police murdered, tortured, raped, beat and arbitrarily detained civilians and members of separatist movements.

The US human rights report singles out the Indonesian army's special forces Kopassus and the Brimob police paramilitary unit for particular censure.

It says abuses by security forces were most apparent in Aceh province where some 898 fighters and civilians were killed during the year.

The department also criticises the separatist Free Aceh Movement rebels, saying they killed, tortured, raped, beat and illegally detained civilians and members of the security forces during 2002.

Security force members also committed severe abuses in other conflict zones such as Papua, the Maluku islands and Central Sulawesi "but at reduced levels compared with the previous year".

The State Department criticises a human rights court, set up following the army-backed militia violence against independence supporters in East Timor in 1999.

It says the tribunal's performance has reinforced the impression that impunity will continue for soldiers and police who commit human rights abuses.

The US report says widespread corruption continued throughout the Indonesian legal system in 2002 with bribes influencing prosecutions, convictions and sentencing.