Amy Chew, Banda Aceh – The group which mobilised last month's huge pro-independence rally in the restive province of Aceh warned it would hold a referendum on ending Indonesian rule if Jakarta refuses one of its own.

President Abdurrahman Wahid is under growing pressure to calm the resource-rich province at the northern tip of Sumatra island where ever louder demands for freedom threaten to ignite rebellion in much of the rest of the Indonesian archipelago.

"We will hold our own referendum if Gus Dur does not include the option of independence in his referendum," Muhammad Nazar, coordinator of Solidarity for the Integrity of the People of Aceh (SIRA), told Reuters on Thursday.

Wahid, popularly known as Gus Dur, has promised Aceh a referendum next year but only on whether to implement Moslem shariah law, firmly ruling out the option of independence.

SIRA mobilised more than half a million people – over one million by some counts, or a quarter of Aceh's population – on the streets of the local capital Banda Aceh on November 8 to demand a referendum in the largest separatist protest in the country's history.

The influence of SIRA, made up of more than 100 private organisations, student groups and religious schools, has grown since the huge success of the protest.

Nazar said he was optimistic SIRA's referendum offering a choice between greater autonomy or a complete break from Indonesia would be backed by all Acehnese and the international community.

But last week at a summit in Manila, Southeast Asian leaders said they had no desire to see any change in Indonesia's borders, clearly worried by the instability that would follow any disintigration of the huge archipelago. Nazar predicted that his organisations' referendum would show most people favoured independence.

Senior ministers, leading Indonesian and Acehnese figures have said that past injustices have to be addressed if the country did not want to lose Aceh.

But Nazar was sceptical about the government's efforts so far. "From our experience of the past 54 years, when the government of Indonesia is weak, they make all kinds of promises to the people of Aceh. But when they are strong, they revoke them," he said.

[On December 2, Dow Jones Newswires reported that Mobil Oil Indonesia Inc., the largest foreign investor in Aceh, has suspended its gas exploration activities in Aceh, citing growing tension ahead of expected pro-independence demonstrations - James Balowski.]