An international rights group called for the immediate and unconditional lifting of press restrictions in Indonesia's Aceh province, where a major military campaign to crush separatist rebels is in its seventh month.

The New York-based Human Rights Watch also urged the government to allow a special UN rapporteur to visit the province soon to ensure the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression.

"Remove immediately and unconditionally the prohibition on direct news gathering and reporting from Aceh by the Indonesian and foreign media," Human Rights Watch said in a report entitled: "Muzzling the Messengers: Attacks and Restrictions on the Media." It said Jakarta and the military have effectively barred nearly all independent and impartial observers including diplomats and aid workers from the province.

"A shroud of secrecy has enveloped Indonesia's Aceh province since the Indonesian government renewed its war there against the armed separatist Free Aceh Movement (GAM) on May 19, 2003," the group said.

It said any observers or aid workers allowed into Aceh are generally not permitted to venture beyond the provincial capital Banda Aceh.

The group said the shroud of secrecy parts occasionally to provide glimpses of vulnerable civilans caught up in the military campaign with inadequate humanitarian relief.

"The hard reality is that at present no one, except perhaps the Indonesian military, knows what is happening to Aceh's civilian population." The military has said that some 395 civilians have been killed since the military operation began. It blames the rebels. It says more than 1,100 rebels have been killed in the same period.

Human Rights Watch said both the military and GAM have engaged in physical and verbal intimidation of the press on the ground and of editors or correspondents in Jakarta.

GAM has held two Indonesian TV journalists hostages since the end of June. The report said an Indonesian television cameramen was killed, one radio journalist severely beaten by solders and numerous others shot at by unidentified attackers while driving in clearly marked press vehicles.

"The lack of access and monitoring by independent observers, including a free press, has created a climate in which armed forces on both sides believe they can act with impunity and commit abuses, unreported and away from the public eye," Human Rights Watch said.

The group called on the government to ensure that a special rapporteur of the UN Commissioner on Human Rights is able to visit promptly. Indonesia, it said, has already extended an invitation to the rapporteur.