The new leader of separatist rebels in Aceh called for foreign human rights activists to visit the province and investigate what he called past and present brutality by Indonesian troops.

Muzakir Manaf, military leader of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM), said Monday foreign investigators must come to Aceh to witness "forced confiscation, molestation and arson" by soldiers.

"The presence of Indonesian armed forces and police troops in Aceh have created dozens of mass graves that can be found in North and East Aceh districts," he said in his first public statement since the killing of his predecessor Abdullah Syafii in January,.

"Actions outside national and international law by Indonesian troops for the past 13 years have not been stopped by anyone," the Libyan-trained Manaf said. He condemned the unsolved deaths of several respected Aceh community leaders and academics in the past year.

An estimated 10,000 people have died since December 1976 when GAM began its fight for an independent Islamic state in the province on the northern tip of Sumatra island. More than 300 have been killed this year alone in the energy-rich province.

US-based Human Rights Watch has said most of the deaths last year were civilians caught in military operations. But it said GAM was "also responsible for serious abuses." Syafii, along with his wife and five bodyguards, was killed on January 22 in a military raid on a rebel hideout.

The government last year passed a law granting Aceh greater self-rule and a much larger share of oil and gas revenue. It also allowed the staunchly Muslim region to implement Islamic law. But rebels insist on nothing short of independence, a goal which the government has ruled out.