Indonesian forces were pursuing their renewed civil war against separatist rebels in Aceh after the breakdown on Sunday of a five-month ceasefire. The army has vowed to exterminate rebels of the Free Aceh Movement (Gam), but face huge difficulties posed by rugged terrain and a broadly sympathetic population. The Government has said that up to 200,000 people are to be taken from their homes and put into tented camps guarded by soldiers to prevent ordinary Acehnese from being caught in the crossfire. Bachtiar Chamsyah, Indonesia’s Minister of Social Affairs, said: “We are waiting for an order from the military administration. Should they want to comb a certain area, we will move people from their homes.”

Lieutenant-Colonel Yani Basuki, a spokesman for the army in Aceh, said yesterday: “One of the reasons is because Gam are putting pressure on people. For instance, they are taking people’s identity papers.”

Britain used a similar technique in Malaya in the 1950s. Thousands of villagers were rounded up and put into camps to deny guerrilla forces access to food and information or the ability to camouflage themselves among the local population. Mr Chamsyah said he expected the first camps to be created in Bireuen district, a centre for rebel activity in northeast Aceh. Mustafa Glanggeng, the civil head of the district, said that the plan was for the people’s protection and glossed over questions about what would happen to those who did not want to leave their houses or rice paddies at a crucial stage of the crop’s growth.

The Government has earmarked £29 million for the camps. It says it has arranged for about 4,000 tents to be sent to more than 80 sites across the province, but preparations in Bireuen seemed woefully inadequate yesterday.

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