Banda Aceh (AFP) – More than 170 civilians have become casualties in the first month of Indonesia's military offensive against separatist rebels in Aceh province, a human rights group report said on Saturday.

The Commission on Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras), in a report released by its branch office here Saturday, said as of June 18 a total of 176 civilians in 12 districts in Aceh had become victims of "extrajudicial killings." "Based on data obtained from the field, corpses of these civilians had borne gunshot wounds. This shows that an unlawful execution process has taken place," the report said.

It said another 151 civilians in the 12 districts had either been arrested or assaulted while 15 others had gone missing. The Jakarta-based rights group said it based its report on compiled media reports and its own investigations.

The Indonesian military is in its second month of a major offensive against the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) after the government put Aceh under martial law on May 19. The report did not name any party responsible for the killings or human rights abuse. But it blamed the government's imposition of martial law as the cause. "The above facts showed that martial law has failed to suppress the death toll of non-combatant civilians," the report said.

Both the military and GAM have accused each other of human rights violations in the current offensive.

On Friday the Indonesian police said that more than 100 civilians had been killed. National police spokesman Zainuri Lubis said the victims have been identified by their families, who denied they were GAM members.

The Indonesian Red Cross said it had collected 194 bodies since the start of the operation but did not say whether they were believed to be civilians or rebels.

Aceh military operations spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Firdaus Komarno, commenting on the report, said civilian victims "clearly cannot be blamed" on the current martial law because it was imposed as "a government order which aims to stop GAM activities" in Aceh.

According to military figures, 225 rebels have now been killed and about 300 more arrested or surrendered since May 19. Some 28 security personnel have died.