Authorities in the restive Indonesian provice of Aceh have transferred 171 convicted separatist rebels to jails on neighbouring Java island, prison officials said. A.C. Hendarmin, head of the Keudah jail in Banda Aceh, said that 136 prisoners were flown in Hercules transport planes from Banda Aceh and the rest from Lhokseumawe.

Hendarmin declined to give a reason for the move, saying it was ordered by the head of the state of martial law in Aceh, Major General Endang Suwarya.

The transfer of former guerrillas of the separatist Free Aceh Movement (GAM) to jails in Java is the third since the government imposed martial law in Aceh in May last year.

The authorities had earlier said the reason for the transfers were that the capacities of jails in Aceh were insufficient. Hendarmin said the prisoners were serving jail terms of between three to 19 years.

In Banda Aceh, the prisoners were taken to the Sultan Iskandar Muda military airbase on board 10 trucks. Many of their families, who had gathered in front of the Keudah jail, saw them board trucks, bound by chains to each others.

Among the detainees taken to Java was Muhammad Nazar, the head of the presidium of the Aceh Referendum Information Center (SIRA) who was jailed for five years in May last year on charges of publicly spreading enmity against the government.