Banda Aceh – Students and other activists who support separatist guerillas in Indonesia's Aceh province will face subversion charges that can carry the death penalty, police warned yesterday. The authorities said they have a list of activists who support or assist the Free Aceh Movement (GAM), as well as evidence against them.

"We will use the criminal code article on subversion, which carries up to the death sentence, against them," said Mr Sayed Husaini, police spokesman in the province where a major military assault against the rebels has entered its third week. He did not state how many were on the wanted list other than saying that "they number a lot".

Many are student activists from the Ar-Raniry State Institute for Religious Sciences in Banda Aceh and members of non-governmental organisations (NGOs), he said. The spokesman named only one individual: Mr Kautsar bin Muhammad Yus, son of the head of the provincial parliament.

Among the NGOs he cited were the Information Centre on a Referendum for Aceh, which campaigns for an independence referendum, and Society's Solidarity for the People.

He said the police were questioning 70 detained GAM members, including five peace negotiators arrested soon after the government declared martial law and launched its military operation on May 19.

Indonesia has been systematically tracking down the support lines and escape routes of the Acehnese in a bid to once and for all eradicate the GAM rebels. It has even appealed to neighbouring countries not to offer sanctuary to fleeing rebels.

Malaysia yesterday said it would deport all people from Aceh caught entering the country illegally, regardless of whether they claimed to be refugees fleeing fighting in the Indonesian province. "We will treat them as we do other refugees. We will detain them and send them back," Malaysian Information Minister Khalil Yaacob said at a briefing for foreign media in Kuala Lumpur.

While relentless in its pursuit of GAM rebels, Indonesia is taking pains to ensure that its soldiers play by the rules. In Lhokseumawe city, three soldiers accused of beating up three civilians – one of them a woman – faced a court-martial yesterday. They could face up to two years in jail if convicted.

The military, which has a record of gross rights abuses, has pointed to the court-martial as evidence of its willingness to curb excesses this time.