Marianne Kearney, Jakarta – Indonesia's military will be looking to reap even more riches from rebellious Papua province now that it has been forced to withdraw thousands of troops from Aceh, observers say.

Indonesians once joked that a tour of duty in war torn Aceh was a windfall for soldiers. "Go with an M16, but return with 16 million," goes the joke referring to the rupiah currency they brought home.

But under the peace accord signed last week, ordinary soldiers from across Indonesia will no longer be posted to the oil and gas rich province. Some 15,000 troops are due to be withdrawn from Aceh by December.

Not surprisingly the military plans to bring the same number of troops to Papua, once known as Irian Jaya, by 2009, creating a new special new strategic command force to be based in Sorong.

"From the military perspective, the only possibility is to relocate troops from the conflict in Aceh to other conflict area – Papua. Just as before troops were deployed from East Timor to Aceh," says military analyst Kusnanto Anggoro.

Officially the military leadership says it is happy to abide by the terms of the Aceh peace accord. But privately many commanders will miss the profits made through the province's protection rackets and illegal timber and drugs trades. Deploying troops to Papua will allow the generals to recoup some of their Aceh losses.

Indonesia's easternmost province is home to the massive Freeport mine at Timika, natural gas fields, and millions of hectares of virgin forests.

The $US1 billion illegal trade in Papua's timber, is already heavily dominated by the military, says the London based Environmental Investigation Agency, which earlier this year released a report, accusing corrupt military, police and officials of fuelling lucrative export of logs to China and other parts of Asia. Shocked by the extent of the illegal trade, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, vowed to crack down on security officials involved in the timber smuggling trade.

And two days after signing the peace deal with the Acehnese rebels, Mr Yudhoyono promised that Jakarta would focus on Papua, where a small guerilla group has for decades fought for independence. But emboldened by the US Congress's recent call for an investigation into how the region was integrated into Indonesia, Papuans are already on a collision cause with Jakarta and the military. Sofyan Yoman, the secretary general of Papua's Baptist Church said this week that a meeting of influential Papuan church leaders, MPs and independence activists had decided to lobby for internationally sponsored negotiations on Papua.

"Until now Indonesia just plays with the Papuans – but we won't allow it anymore," he said.

Papua was incorporated into Indonesia in 1969 after a UN sponsored ballot. But with just 1000 tribal chiefs allowed to vote, the Act of Free Choice, has been criticised as a sham.

The demand for a review of the vote, using international negotiators, was given an unexpected boost when 40 US congressmen last month moved a motion calling for another UN ballot and for investigation into rights abuses.