Banda Aceh – Six people were killed yesterday in Indonesia's Aceh province as rebels marked the 25th anniversary of an independence struggle which has cost an estimated 10,000 lives.

Streets were deserted until mid-afternoon apart from security patrols and markets and offices closed after Free Aceh Movement (GAM) military commander Teungku Abdullah Syafiie urged residents to stay home until 3pm.

Fully armed police and troops patrolled Banda Aceh, capital of the oil- and gas-rich province on the north of Sumatra. Rights groups say about 1,600 have been killed this year alone.

Police tore down about 100 separatist flags in Banda Aceh and its surroundings, said city police chief Adjunct Senior Commissioner Sayid Huseini.

He said two men who ran away when police checked a house with a suspicious antenna in the Tungkup area were shot dead after they ignored warning shots. Two others escaped. Police found two handguns on the bodies and one appeared to have belonged to a local police chief abducted last year, he said.

Four bodies displaying signs of torture were found in two locations at Langsa in East Aceh on the eve of the anniversary, local paramedics said.

Rebels held flag-raising ceremonies in jungle hideouts. In a message read out at the ceremonies, Sweden-based GAM supreme commander Hasan di Tiro called on Acehnese to pursue independence at all costs.

"I hereby call upon all gallant Acehnese to be steadfast, resolute, and continue our rightful and sacred struggle against the Javanese-Indonesian invaders until the final victory is ours, come what may," he said.

Mr Tiro, who established the Free Aceh Movement in 1976 to fight for an independent Islamic state, denounced the autonomy scheme implemented in Aceh this year as "an empty shell".