Lhokseumawe – Indonesian troops began a pullout from troubled Aceh province yesterday to cheers and catcalls from locals who say a nine-year army crackdown involved torture, rape and the dumping of victims in mass graves.

After a brief ceremony in the industrial city of Lhokseumawe on the northern tip of Sumatra, 50 soldiers from the elite Kopassus special forces and 200 regular troops picked up their rucksacks and marched on to a waiting convoy of 12 trucks. A crowd of about 500 local residents cheered, shouted abuse and shook their fists.

The army said it would withdraw a further 729 troops, including 29 Kopassus soldiers, on Aug 31. Its promised withdrawal of all combat troops from the province would then be complete. The military leaves behind accusations of mass killings and widespread human rights violations during a campaign against a separatist insurgency in the staunchly Muslim province since 1989.

The military has not revealed the strength of its forces in Aceh. A spokesman in Lhokseumawe insisted the 979 troops being withdrawn represented the entire combat force in Aceh, but some newspapers have estimated there are 6,000 combat troops in addition to an equal number of other soldiers.

Acehnese human rights groups say there are at least nine mass graves in the province, containing up to 1,600 corpses. Indonesia's official Human Rights Commission said a team of its members would begin investigating the grave sites this week.

Locals watching the departure ceremony from the perimeter of the parade ground were quiet at first but became increasingly raucous, interrupting the ceremony with cheering. As the soldiers left, the crowds were jubilant. "They have done nothing but make the people of Aceh suffer. We're glad they're gone," said Mr Rizal, one of a crowd of young men shouting abuse at the convoy of passing trucks.