JAKARTA, Nov 14 (Reuters) - An Indonesian human rights panel said on Friday it would form a team to investigate cases of rights abuse it suspects the army committed in the far eastern province of Papua in April.

"A preliminary investigation shows that the army was involved in summary killing, torture and rape against civilians," Safroedin Bahar, spokesman of the Indonesian National Commission on Human Rights, told reporters.

Military spokesmen were not immediately available for comment.

Bahar said the commission would set up a team to investigate the Wamena case in April 2003, and results of the investigation would be given to the attorney general to provide the basis for proceedings in court.

The commission is state-funded but describes itself as an independent watchdog.

At least 16 villagers were killed as troops searched for guns stolen by suspected Papuan rebels in April this year, local media reports have said.

Bahar also said the rights panel will investigate reports of human rights violations by police in Wasior in Papua in 2001.

Chief Security Minister Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said the government wanted the rights commission to be fair in probing the case in Wamena.

"In conflict areas such as in Papua or in Aceh...it cannot be avoided that there are clashes and actions beyond acceptable levels, even human rights violations. However, that cannot be legitimised," Yudhoyono said.

He was speaking soon after he and other ministers and commission members had met President Megawati Sukarnoputri.

At least 12 people were killed in clashes between security forces and separatist rebels in resource-rich Papua last week, local media reported.

Security forces and rebels clash sporadically in Papua, a separatist hotspot on the eastern end of the sprawling Indonesian archipelago.

The Free Papua Movement has been waging armed resistance against Jakarta since Papua's forced incorporation into Indonesia in 1963.

A U.N.-run plebiscite in 1969 of leaders of the local population resulted in a decision to join Indonesia, but the vote has been widely criticised as unfair.