BANDA ACEH, Indonesia, Nov 23, Reuter - Hundreds of corpses, have been found in the Indonesian province of Aceh and hundreds of people have disappeared, said soldiers, politicians and villagers in the area.

The regional military commander, Major General Pramono, said in an interview on Thursday the killings were largely the work of a secretive group of rebels whose leadership and aims were unclear. He gave no numbers for the dead.

"ABRI (the armed forces) doesn't kill the people. If they're not the enemy, ABRI won't kill them," Pramono said.

A wide range of civilian and religious leaders told two reporters visiting the Sumatran province of Aceh (pronounced Achay) this week that much of the killing was the work of the armed forces, which have been battling rebels in the province since last year.

Aceh has a long history of independence movements fighting Dutch and later Jakarta's rule.

"Human rights have gone out the window," said Teuku Achmad Dewi, a Moslem preacher.

"If you add up all the deaths it's over 1,000," said a senior military doctor who treats victims from both sides of the conflict.

During a journey through the eastern industrial coastland, he pointed out places where corpses had been found. "One there, two there, one there. Four over by the bridge."

A trickle of deaths over the past year became a torrent in late September, three months before a deadline set by Pramono to end the conflict, several sources said.

Rebels have said in letters to newspapers that they are aiming at outsiders, mostly the armed forces and settlers from Indonesia's overcrowded main island of Java.

The corpses that turn up on roadsides, in rivers and plantations at the rate of two or three a day in the three most troubled districts are those of civilians from Aceh, residents said.

Politicians and religious leaders, none of whom wanted to be identified, told Reuters the murders were mostly the work of the armed forces, which they said were trying to terrorise the population into opposing the rebels.

"Okay, that does happen," said an Acehnese soldier in the political division. "But they use terrorist strategies, so we are forced to use anti-terrorist strategies."

Pramono, speaking at his headquarters in the main Sumatran city of Medan, said: "As a strategy, that's true. But our goal is not bad. Our goal must be correct...We only kill them if they are enemies."

Reports of 200 bodies found in a single grave near a remote military helipad were exaggerated, the Acehnese soldier said.

"The grave certainly exists but I don't think it could have been 200 bodies. It's hard to tell with arms and heads all mixed up."

Villagers should carry machetes and kill rebels, Pramono said in a recent magazine interview.

Asked if this might simply encourage the Acehnese, who have a history of violence, to carry out private vendettas, he said:

"We have written laws and unwritten laws...The people know the unwritten laws so they won't kill anyone who's not in the wrong. Well, one or two maybe, but that's the risk."

Former police general Abdoellah Moeda, the head of the Indonesian governing party Golkar in Banda Aceh, said the call to kill rebels conflicted with all government briefings. "Indonesia abides by the rule of law."

"That is in a normal situation, but the situation now is not normal," counters Pramono. "If it were normal why would I have to send so many troops up there? And what about all those transmigrants they (the rebels) are killing? Is that the rule of law?"

There were around 5,000 troops in Aceh, he said. However, active soldiers giving details of battalions, including those in plain clothes, put the total at 12,000.

The armed forces has lost dozens of people, Pramono said. He declined to give figures for civilian deaths or arrests.

Acehnese are being rounded up in their hundreds and taken to detention centres, often on the smallest suspicion, residents said.

"They take people away from their houses at night. You probably have a 50-50 chance of ever coming back," said a non-government party politician.