Susan Sim, Banda Aceh – One year after the Indonesian military apologised for past abuses and pledged to withdraw troops, a humanitarian crisis is brewing in Aceh as a renewed crackdown on armed insurgents creates a growing refugee problem, social activists here warn.

"The violence has created a fragile situation," Mr Humam Hamid of the Care Human Rights Forum told The Straits Times. "If this continues, we are going to begin the new millennium with a famine."

Information compiled by volunteer helpers shows that some 400,000 Acehnese, most of them farmers from the province's rice bowl, are now sheltering in 17 sanctuaries – plastic and cardboard cities set up in mosques, schools and government offices in Pidie, North and East Aceh. The three districts are where the separatist Gerakan Aceh Merdeka (GAM or Free Aceh Movement) is most active.

Each time the rebels clash with troops, who follow up with "sweeping" action in nearby villages, an exodus begins, with many fearing harassment by soldiers.

But unless the villagers return to their farms before the end of the month, rice fields will probably not be harvested. And if the next planting season, in October and November, is missed, "we will have nothing to eat by the end of the year", Mr Humam said.

Eastern Aceh's rice fields feed the province's 4 million people as well as most of those in North Sumatra.

If no aid was forthcoming, not only would the growing numbers of refugees face severe malnutrition, but the lives of other ordinary Acehnese would be "at stake" too, he said.

Health workers at the Pidie refugee camps, which are overcrowded but unable to turn away fresh arrivals, said that sanitation problems could create a deadly malaria epidemic.

The compound of the Abu Beureueh Mosque is over-run by 18,000 refugees. Nurses sent there by the local health centre said they treated at least 100 people for diarrhoea every day.

Swatting away the flies buzzing around her as she measured out a limited supply of medicine, a nurse said about 20 people had died since the camp began in late June, mostly from "old age". "But we'll have malaria soon. Have you seen the mosquitoes here at night?"

The camps are also breeding a pro-independence fervour, with antagonism towards Jakarta so high that refugees refuse to accept food donated by the local authorities. "They would rather starve. So we have to be careful where we get supplies from," student volunteer co-ordinator Herri Shahputra noted.

Apart from contributions from local businessmen, volunteers also collect donations from cars passing in front of the mosque. "I don't know what it costs, but we need 3-1/2 tonnes of rice every day. Can the world help?"