Jakarta – Three bodies, including those of two soldiers, were found in the restive province of Aceh yesterday after gunmen attacked an Air Force radar tower in another area, government officials said.

The bodies were found in side streets in Teupin Batee village in the morning, the head of East Aceh district, Alauddin Ae, was quoted as saying by Reuters.

"We don't know who killed them," he told reporters, adding that two had been identified as soldiers from a local battalion.

The bodies carried stab injuries and bruises on the neck which suggested strangulation. Late on Tuesday, a group of unidentified gunmen fired on an Air Force radar tower, a military air force official said.

"The group of about four to eight fired on the tower around 9:20pm. The shootings lasted about 10 minutes but there were no reports of casualties," Major Ahmad Toha told Reuters.

The incident broke out in North Aceh's Belang Mangat district. The area is just outside the industrial city of Lhokseumawe, a hotbed of resistance to the government and homicidal troops.

In Jakarta, dozens of students staged a demonstration to demand a referendum be held for Aceh. The protesters, members of the Student Solidarity for Aceh (Somaka), took to the streets outside Central Jakarta's Hotel Arya Duta.

The students held their 20-minute protest at the hotel where the General Election Commission (KPU) was busy monitoring the election results coming in at the media center it has set up there.

"We do not ask for a meeting with any KPU member. We only want to make the world realize what is happening in Aceh," Somaka leader Fajran Zain said. A referendum is the only way to settle the human rights abuses against Acehnese, he added.

Somaka also urged the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) and the United Nations (UN) to monitor and settle atrocities in Aceh by opening a branch in the country's westernmost province.

In its petition, Somaka said the Acehnese reject the presence of anti-riot troops whom they blame for the human rights violations they had to put up with during a decade-long military operation to quash rebel movements in the province.

Responding to the protest, Komnas HAM member Miriam Budiardjo said it would be better to settle the Aceh case after there is a new parliament. "Komnas HAM will set up an independent team to conduct investigations there," she said.

The team's members will consist of Acehnese who know the situation in the province better than anyone else, she said.