Sian Powell, Jakarta – The Indonesian military is continuing to wage war with separatist rebels in the hills of Aceh as world leaders put the finishing touches to a multi-billion-dollar aid and investment package for the devastated province.

As international military and medical teams stepped up relief efforts yesterday in Aceh, where the tsunami killed up to 100,000 people, an Indonesian military spokesman confirmed that only two-thirds of the military's 40,000-strong force in the province was taking part in the relief effort while the remaining third was engaged in military operations against insurgents.

The rebels claimed yesterday that the Indonesian military has moved more troops into rebel-held territory under the guise of relief operations since the tsunami struck 10 days ago. They say squads of soldiers are preventing hill villagers going to help their relatives on the coast.

"They are still conducting an incessant military operation," a rebel spokesman, Teuku Jamaika, told The Australian from his base somewhere in the Aceh hills. "There's no difference between before and after the tsunami."

Thousands of Australian and US military personnel are at the forefront of the relief operation on the coast of Aceh, with the support of medical and military teams from as far away as Germany and Japan.

The Indonesian embassy in Canberra last night defended the continued military operation against the rebels. "The Indonesian military in Aceh also has a responsibility to maintain security," a spokesman said. "The main task of the military is to provide humanitarian aid but they are also meant to provide security."

Colonel Djazairi Nachrowi, the head of information analysis at the national military headquarters, said there had been no ceasefire, despite an offer from rebel leaders exiled in Sweden to suspend hostilities until Aceh had recovered.

"At first we thought positively, that GAM [the Free Aceh Movement] had a conscience, and would not use the situation like this, but it turned out they held up [aid transport]," Colonel Nachrowi said. "We are not offensive, we are defensive." There had been no outright attacks on the rebels, he said.

"Some TNI [Indonesian military] troops tried to escort a truck filled with aid," he said. "When they were on their way there was an indication they would be held up, so there was an exchange of fire. It's not TNI attacking GAM, but an exchange of fire because humanitarian aid was held up."

GAM spokesman Teuku Jamaika said military raids had continued in hill areas of Idi Rayek, in Bireuen, Gandapura and Pasongan. Local people had been prevented from leaving their villages to find relatives or simply to help, he said. "It was prohibited, blocked. If they left their villages there were threats."

University of Indonesia military specialist Salim Said said GAM rebels would try to attack aid convoys to boost their supplies while the Indonesian military continued its crackdown.

"The operation to obliterate GAM continues, nothing has changed there," Dr Said said. "Now another danger has threatened them, but they will still try to crush GAM."

Kirsten Schulze, a senior lecturer at the London School of Economics and the author of a number of papers on the Aceh insurgency, said counter-insurgency operations were continuing in the province, but she said it should be remembered the military was doing most of the dirty work in hard-hit towns such as Banda Aceh.

"In Meulaboh, there are no military operations," she said. "In East Aceh, which was not hit hard by the tsunami, yes, there are security operations going on."

Dr Schulze, in Indonesia to continue her research, said more troops had been sent into Aceh from North Sumatra, but only to bolster the relief effort. "Without the military, the aid effort would be even slower."

Bakhtiar Abdullah, a GAM spokesman based in Sweden, said the military had poured troops into the region since the disaster. "The reports we received is that they are moving in more troops under the guise of relief operations," he said.

The 19-month crackdown on the GAM rebels has become a tender issue for Indonesia. The failure of an internationally-brokered and short-lived ceasefire in 2003 prompted the massive military offensive, and Indonesia has reacted angrily to foreign criticism of various atrocities.

Before the tsunami hit, international aid workers were almost entirely prevented from operating in Aceh, journalists curtailed to an extent which made balanced coverage impossible, and diplomats largely barred from visiting.

Teuku Jamaika said two rebels were shot dead by Indonesian soldiers late last week after an all-out attack, and flatly denied the rebels had attempted to hold up an aid convoy.

"We actually already unilaterally asked the TNI for a ceasefire," he said. "We asked TNI to take a defensive position and only attack if we attack first. But it just doesn't work."