John Aglionby – Indonesia's military chief warned Britain yesterday not to try to dictate how he should use his country's British-made Hawk fighter jets in its operations against separatists in Aceh.

General Endriartono Sutarto told the Guardian during a visit to Aceh that he was not concerned about promises made before the purchase. "In order to cover the whole region and complete the job, I am going to use what I have," he said. "After all, I have paid already."

He confirmed that the Hawks had been used offensively, but he said the fighters had not yet been used in air-to-ground attacks. He gave no promises about their future use. "If we don't use them [for air-to-ground operations], we don't use them," he said. "But who knows?"

Britain's ambassador to Indonesia, Richard Gozney, said yesterday that Indonesia's defence minister, Matori Abdul Djalil, had reassured him on Tuesday about how the Hawks would be used. "The defence minister confirmed that the Hawks would not be used in a ground-attack role," he said – but he made no mention of their use in other offensive roles.

Britain sold the fighters to Jakarta on the understanding that they would not be used in offensive operations in Indonesia. In the first three days of renewed hostilities in Aceh, the Indonesian military repeatedly used four of the aircraft against the Free Aceh Movement.