Ambon – The Indonesian military's support of Muslim extremists in Maluku province appears to be growing, partly because of the failure of authorities to identify and prosecute rogue officers, a senior United States diplomat said yesterday.

"[There is] increasing involvement although I don't think that it was planned beforehand," Mr Robert Pollard said, following three days of meetings with government, religious and community leaders in Ambon, the province's strife-torn capital.

"What's really horrifying is the inability of the military to pursue and punish the people responsible," Mr Pollard said. "That's what's really troubling when you consider the country as a whole."

This week, Maluku's armed forces chief, General Max Tamaela, said four soldiers and a police officer were being questioned about their involvement in the massacre of 24 civilians in the village of Haruku, near Ambon city, on January 24.

Witnesses to the attack, which virtually wiped the community of 3,200 people off the map, say three groups of up to 10 soldiers each led a Muslim mob into the Christian village shortly before dawn.

In a letter dated January 29, lawyers representing the Christian synod in Ambon accused the military of failing to investigate the destruction of 28 villages on the island of Seram in the week beginning December 31.

"There is evidence the TNI [Indonesian Armed Forces] were there," said one of the lawyers, Mr Semmy Waileruny, "but so far there has been no investigation." Mr Pollard said there was no hard evidence to support that claim.

Security forces killed a guerilla leader in a raid on a separatist camp in Aceh province, police said yesterday. Mukhtar Molen, separatist army commander in the Bireun subdistrict of North Aceh, had been shot by police on Wednesday in the Alue Bunta area.

In the northern industrial city of Lhokseumawe, grenade explosions rocked three government buildings, and a policeman was injured in another grenade attack on a police station.