The launch this week of the biggest Indonesian military operation since the 1975 invasion of East Timor suggests an impending bloodbath in the contested northern province of Aceh.

Sian Powell, Jakarta – Bullets cracked through the smoke from three blazing vegetable trucks and a flaming bus in the village of Teupin Raya as the battle for Aceh grew more heated yesterday.

Jakarta/Lhokseumawe – Casualties rose on Wednesday as the Indonesian Military (TNI) mounted massive attacks on strongholds of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) in Bireuen, North Aceh, and Aceh Besar.

Apriadi Gunawan and Muninggar Sri Saraswati, Medan/Jakarta – In support of the government's pledge to quash the Free Aceh Movement (GAM), the police rounded up activists and other individuals and charged them with subversion over their alleged connection with the separatist group.

Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak, Jakarta – An antiwar rally here ended in the arrest of four foreign and two Indonesian participants on Wednesday while they were expressing solidarity for the Acehnese people who have seen violence return to their home soil.

I got there just as the Indonesian army patrol was leaving. These men are part of the Indonesian army's notorious specials forces. They told us they'd just been in a gunfight with GAM (Free Aceh Movement) rebels earlier in the morning.

Indonesian troops have killed or captured dozens of insurgents in its north-western province of Aceh in a major offensive aimed at destroying a separatist rebellion. The guerrillas have pledged "a drawn-out war".

Locals in the Indonesian province of Aceh are accusing forces they won't name of setting about destroying the island's very future, its schools. Hundreds have been torched in just one day, at the same time as Indonesia's military chief ordered his soldiers to exterminate the separatist rebels of the Free Aceh Movement, or GAM.

Max Lane, Jakarta – A report issued on May 9 by the conservative Brussels-based International Crisis Group, headed by former Australian foreign minister Gareth Evans, declared: "The Indonesian military is not using the phrase 'shock and awe', but the stream of reports on the number of troops, tanks, and weapons being prepared for Aceh is designed to have the same effect."

Patrick McLoughlin, Stockholm – The leadership of separatist rebels in Indonesia's Aceh province, under attack by government forces after peace talks collapsed, called on the United Nations on Wednesday to intervene immediately in the conflict.

With the war in Aceh set to to intensify, Jakarta says its preparing for the evacuation of some 300,000 people. Since the weekend declaration of martial law after the collapse of peace talks, an estimated 12,000 Acehnese have already been displaced. And with that number expected to rise, Jakarta has launched a humanitarian operation, designating refugee shelters.

In Aceh's western district, government troops have clashed with separatist rebels as the military continues to boost its strength, sending more troops and and police. So far, 17 civilians and five rebels have reportedly been killed in the battle and some 200-schools torched. But each side is blaming the other for the destruction.

Presenter/Interviewer: Linda LoPresti

Matthew Moore – Two things are certain about the newly resumed war in Aceh: a lot of innocent people will die and not many people will care, at least outside this province on Sumatra's furthest tip.

President Megawati Sukarnoputri's declaration of martial law brings to an end a six month cease-fire. The Free Aceh rebels say they are ready to return to war and Indonesian troops have already begun military attacks against the rebels. But does President Megawati's decision have the solid backing of the Indonesian people?

[The following is a translation of an interview in Tokyo with Erwanto, a representative Aceh People's Freedom Front (FPDRA).]

The talks between RI and GAM in Tokyo could have succeeded. As a representative of civil society, Erwanti attended the talks between the two sides in Tokyo on 17 and 18 May, the day before martial law was proclaimed in Aceh.

Nani Farida, Lhokseumawe – Despite the apparent normalcy, hundreds of thousands of residents of North Aceh, a stronghold of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM), are preparing to flee their villages and take refuge if the government launches a military operation.

Jakarta – United States President George W. Bush welcomed on Thursday a decision by the Indonesian government and Aceh separatist rebels to hold weekend talks in Tokyo in a last-ditch effort to save their peace pact.

In a final bid to salvage Aceh's shaky peace pact and avert war, separatist rebels have agreed to meet with the Indonesian Government in Tokyo this weekend. The decision by the separatist Free Aceh Movement comes after an emergency late-night meeting between Japan, the European Union, the US and Indonesia's top security minister.

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The Indonesian government and Aceh separatist rebels said they are willing to hold talks in Tokyo on Saturday to avert a return to war in the province.

Sofyan Ibrahim Tiba, a senior official of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM), said there had been "a breakthrough" in talks between GAM's exiled leadership in Stockholm and foreign mediators.

Former foreign minister Ali Alatas talked to The Jakarta Post's Kornelius Purba about his views on Aceh. Now the advisor to President Megawati Soekarnoputri, he pointed out that Indonesia should not repeat the mistakes it made in East Timor, especially in regards human rights issues, in resolving the Aceh problem. The following is an excerpt from the interview:

Lesley McCulloch, Melbourne – Extrajudicial executions, disappearances, torture, rape and the targeted harassment of human-rights defenders. This was life in Aceh five years ago; it is also life in Aceh today.

Jakarta – Acehnese scrambled to store basic commodities on Sunday, one day before the deadline for separatist Free Aceh Movement (GAM) to abandon its demand for independence and disarm – two non-negotiable prerequisites for peace talks to resume.

Antony Barnett – The Observer Tomorrow is make-or-break day in one of South-East Asia's bloodiest conflicts. Last week more than 2,000 Indonesian government troops sailed from the Javanese port of Surabaya to reinforce a 26,000-strong force already in the province of Aceh, where a 26-year struggle for independence has already led to the deaths of more than 10,000 people.

Banda Aceh – The United States, the European Union and Japan yesterday issued a joint statement urging Indonesia not to launch a military operation in Aceh province.

Prangtip Daorueng, Jakarta – As Aceh's peace effort lurches toward a possible collapse, fear has taken over the persistent, if increasingly uncertain, hope that many from that restive Indonesian province had over recent months.

Just five months after the Indonesian Government and the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) concluded a momentous accord on the Cessation of Hostilities (COHA) on 9 December 2002, which was enthusiatically welcomed by the Acehnese people, the Indonesian armed forces (TNI) have started preparations for a major military offensive in Aceh aimed at crushing GAM.

Indonesian police have arrested four rebel members of a joint committee established to monitor a ceasefire in the province of Aceh.

The four members represented the separatist Free Aceh Movement (GAM) on the Joint Security Committee. The committee was set up to monitor the December 9 peace deal between the GAM and the Indonesian government.

Joanne Collins, Jakarta – Seven navy vessels carrying some 3,000 marines sailed for troubled Aceh on Thursday, even as officials said there was time to talk with rebels and that the government would consult parliament on plans for the province.

Max Lane – Following a meeting of the Indonesian cabinet security committee on April 28, security minister Susilo Bambang Yudotomo announced that Jakarta may consider resuming "security operations" and abandon peace negotiations in Aceh.

Grave human rights abuses including the killing of children and other civilians are already being reported in Indonesia's Aceh province, Amnesty International says.

A major military offensive aimed at crushing the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) entered its second week today in the province, which has been placed under martial law.

Separatist rebels in Aceh have accused the Indonesian government of violating an already fragile peace agreement by strengthening its troops in the province.

Banda Aceh – Police said on Monday they found three bombs allegedly planted by separatist rebels on a road often used by police patrols, AFP reported.

Jakarta – Some 50 Acehnese leaders are attempting to salvage the fragile peace in the province as the government deadline for Acehnese rebels to accept special autonomy and disarm draws near.

Patrick McLoughlin, Stockholm – Sweden on Sunday rejected suggestions that the Stockholm-based leader of the separatist rebels for the Indonesian province of Aceh be expelled from the country to face trial in Indonesia.

Pelambang – People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) chairman Amien Rais has said that it would be "useless" to continue depending on the Swiss-based Henry Dunant Center (HDC) in finding a peaceful solution to the prolonged armed conflict in Aceh.

Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta – The central government is investigating Aceh Governor Abdullah Puteh for alleged misappropriation of general allocation funds for the conflict-torn province, a minister said on Friday.

Jakarta – With the two-week deadline set for Aceh rebels to accept terms for peace talks coming closer, the Indonesian government is facing mounting pressure to save the truce it signed last year.

Banda Aceh – An independent team should look into alledged violations of the Cessation of Hostilities Agreement (CoHA) between the Indonesian government and the separatist Free Aceh Movement (GAM), according to Indonesia's National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM).

Jakarta – The Aceh peace facilitator, the Henry Dunant Centre (HDC), is now trying to set a new date and venue for peace talks between the government and the Free Aceh Movement (GAM), after the former pulled out of a planned Joint Council meeting in Geneva last week.

Jakarta – Indonesia said yesterday it was still willing to talk to Aceh separatists to try to save a fragile peace agreement, but demanded the rebels stop pushing for independence and start disarming.

The government gave the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) between one and two weeks to respond and held back from launching a full-scale military operation.

Two Indonesian soldiers and a boy aged six have been injured in Indonesia's Aceh province, hours after the government set terms for renewed peace talks with separatist rebels.

A grenade fired from a launcher exploded near two soldiers who were relaxing in the center of Bireuen town late Monday, an Aceh military spokesman, Dasli Averos, said Tuesday.

Which do we love more, peace or sovereignty? This question came up when Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono addressed the problem of Aceh last week. The chief security minister reportedly said: "Indonesians love peace, but Indonesians value their sovereignty and territorial integrity even more."

Jakarta – The Free Aceh Movement (GAM) threatened on Sunday to "teach colonial forces a lesson" if Jakarta resumed its military operation in Aceh, while the government meets to decide the next step in handling the restive province.

Jakarta/Banda Aceh – Vice President Hamzah Haz called on the government and the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) on Saturday to resume peace talks to save the peace agreement signed in December 2002.

Banda Aceh – The United States and other powers expressed "deep disappointment" on Friday at the scrapping of a crucial meeting aimed at saving the Aceh peace pact and put the blame on separatist rebels. The US, Japan and the World Bank said a successful Joint Council meeting would be necessary to save the December 9 peace agreement in the Indonesianprovince.

Devi Asmarani, Jakarta – The Indonesian government said it had lost all faith in the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) after the rebel group "disrespectfully" postponed an emergency meeting that was to salvage a peace pact between them.

War-weary Acehnese urged the Indonesian government and separatist rebels to get serious about saving their fragile peace pact, after a crucial meeting was called off at the last minute.

Nani Farida, Banda Aceh – The trial of an Aceh activist in Banda Aceh, the capital of Aceh, on Monday turned tense when more than 150 supporters of the Aceh Referendum Information Center (SIRA) staged a demonstration to protest the trial and the arrest of two other SIRA activists.

Nani Farida and Tiarma Siboro, Banda Aceh/Jakarta – The effort to bring peace back to Aceh faces another stiff test after the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) rebel group threatened to boycott a Joint Council meeting if it went ahead in Tokyo as planned.