As many as six people have been killed in Aceh by Indonesian troops hunting separatist rebels despite the signing of a peace pact December 9, a resident and a rebel commander said.

A spokesman for the rebel Free Aceh Movement (GAM) said despite the signing of a cessation of hostility agreement in Geneva, troops were reportedly continuing their anti-rebel operations in West and East Aceh districts.

"I do not know their intentions but whenever they enter villages, villagers flee to the forests. GAM guerrillas have been instructed not to attack them and to avoid such operations or patrols by security personnel," said Sofyan Dawod.

Dawod also said troops arrested 20 civilians in the interior of West Aceh December 10, one day after the peace pact. "Five of them were later found dead while the whereabouts of the remaining 15 remain unknown," Dawod said.

The Indonesian military could not be immediately reached for comment.

The gunshot-marked body of another man, missing since Tuesday, was found Friday face down in the Seugayam river in Southwest Aceh, a local humanitarian activist said. His was the third body found since the pact was signed.

Dawod insisted GAM was honoring the terms of the agreement and that rebel forces have returned to their respective bases or home villages.

Speaking by satellite telephone to AFP, Dawod claimed GAM had 289,000 personnel but was armed with fewer than 2,000 firearms.

"All troops of the GAM are no longer going around carrying their weapons. Some of them have even gone home to see their families and live among the local population," Dawod said.

His statement came as the troubled state on the northernmost tip of Sumatra was to mark the first-week anniversary of the peace pact, which was to end hostilities between the Indonesian government and GAM, locked in a separatist struggle since 1976 that has killed more than 10,000 people.

Many rebels who have chosen to return to their homes across the state have done so in secret "because the GAM guerrillas do not trust [the peace pact] entirely, even more so since the monitoring team has not yet been deployed," Dawod said.

But Dawod was still hopeful peace could be maintained in Aceh and said GAM has prepared a list of military officers to represent the rebels on a joint security committee (JSC) and monitoring team, conditions of the peace agreement.

"We have a lot of hope that the government of Indonesia, especially the armed forces and the police, will really abide by the agreement so that there will no longer be violence against the Aceh people," he said.

"Let us maintain this peaceful situation by restraining ourselves to no longer engage in actions that will only bring suffering to the people."