Jakarta – A senior police officer has been removed from his post and up to 1,000 police and soldiers are being deployed ahead of the expected human rights trial today of soldiers in Indonesia's northern province of Aceh.

A police spokesman said the officer in charge of a crackdown on separatist rebels in violence-racked Aceh had been removed on presidential orders.

Human rights groups say the crackdown, known by the codename Awake Rencong III, has resulted in massive human rights abuses and a wave of killings. A Jakarta-based police spokesman, Colonel Saleh Saaf, said Colonel Yusuf Muharam had been recalled to Jakarta and was being investigated. "At the moment he is under investigation; we are investigating the actions which he took during his service in the post," Colonel Saaf said.

The Awake Rencong III operation, which takes its name from a traditional type of dagger used in Aceh, is the latest in a series of such operations aimed at crushing the separatist Free Aceh rebels. Launched in February, it came after police and military were authorised to use "repressive" measures to control the rebellion late last year.

It follows mass calls in the staunchly Muslim, resource-rich province in the northern tip of Sumatra, for a referendum on independence from Indonesia.

Amnesty International said in early March that unconfirmed reports suggested close to 200 people had been killed this year in counter-insurgency operations against the rebels.