Jakarta – Separatist rebels in Indonesia's Aceh province on Monday denied charges by human rights watchdog Amnesty International that they were executing military informers.

Free Aceh Movement spokesman Ismail Sahputra said military informers were vital witnesses to military atrocities and would be needed to testify against abuses committed by troops in the nine-year operation that has killed about 2,000 people.

"We have never killed civilians who work with the Indonesian military," he told Reuters by telephone. "They are very important for us because we need them when we put the Indonesian military in an international court for killings done in Aceh. So why should we kill them?"

London-based Amnesty International last week accused soldiers and police in Aceh of getting away with murder, torture and disappearances. But it also held the rebels partly responsible for killing soldiers and civilians who worked for the military.

Local journalists in Aceh say about 100 people, many of whom worked for the army, had been killed in the past 12 months.

"They were officially classified as being killed by unknown persons or in mysterious shootings," said one journalist, who declined to be named. Sahputra said they were killed by "guerrilla soldiers" sent by Jakarta to wipe out evidence of past atrocities.

The journalist said while many of the killings were carried out by elements within the military, some were killed by rebels.

"I have to acknowledge that a very small number of informers were killed by Free Aceh in a spontaneous outburst of anger for the sufferings caused by them," said the journalist.

But he said Free Aceh had never embarked on a witch-hunt for informers because the rebels knew many civilians were forced to work for the military out of fear for their own lives.