Jakarta – One third of villages in the restive province of Aceh are used as bases for Free Aceh Movement (GAM) separatist rebels, a report said.

Police spokesman Adj. Sr. Comr. Dadek Achmad said 32 percent of villages in the oil-and-gas-rich province were influenced by GAM separatists, AFP reported.

Previous military commanders in Aceh have in the past estimated that up to 80 percent of Aceh was under the control of the rebels, who have been waging a guerrilla war since the mid-1970s in an attempt to forge an independent Islamic state.

"Military and police forces will continue to cultivate and develop those villages so that GAM becomes truly isolated from the Acehnese people," Achmad said in a statement quoted by thenews agency.

"It is hoped that security forces stationed in the sub-districts align themselves and their units with the people, while always maintaining and conducting good public relations," he said.

Thousands of people, mainly civilians, have died in the quarter century of guerrilla fighting between GAM and Indonesian forces.

Soldiers and police are accused by human rights groups of extra-judicial killings, torture, kidnappings and rape during operations against the rebels. The rights groups also accuse GAM of such abuses.

Achmad said the military and police must always "keep the door open" to any GAM rebels who wish to surrender and "rejoin the united state of the Republic of Indonesia".

In the latest episode of separatist-related violence, soldiers killed two suspected rebels on Saturday, military spokesman Major Zaenal Muttaqin announced.