Jakarta – Indonesia has increased restrictions on foreign journalists trying to visit war torn Aceh province ahead of April parliamentary elections, the foreign ministry said Thursday.

As part of a lengthy bureaucratic process, reporters will now have to submit six different documents, including a recommendation letter from the general electoral commission, before the military will issue a permit.

"We have to know that the reporters have a clear purpose there. This is so the military can protect them," said Marti Natalegawa, a foreign ministry spokesman.

Foreign correspondents have complained that onerous press rules have made it all but impossible for them to visit the province on the northern tip of Sumatra island, where government troops are engaged in a major crackdown on separatist rebels.

Over 50,000 soldiers and police are reportedly participating in the campaign launched last May, after the government pulled out of an internationally mediated peace process and imposed martial law in the independence-minded province of 4.1 million people.

Human rights organizations have alleged that the security forces have committed numerous rights abuses, including extrajudicial murders, torture, rape and other crimes.

Journalists who do go to Aceh are barred from visiting areas held by the Free Aceh Movement and must provide a list of the towns they will visit to the security forces.

New York-based Human Rights Watch said the restrictions were originally imposed after journalists reported on widespread abuses in the early days of the offensive.

At least 1,500 people have died in the operation. Rights activists say most of them have been unarmed civilians caught up in army raids.

The Free Aceh Movement has been fighting for an independent homeland in Aceh, 1,750 kilometers northwest of Jakarta, since 1976, during which at least 12,000 people have died.