Tim Dodd, Banda Aceh – The two men and two women who were paraded through Aceh's capital of Banda Aceh wore signs saying "I stole and I deserve punishment" and "I deeply repent".
The men were thieves, the women prostitutes, according to spokesmen for the student group that cut the hair of the four alleged criminals and drove them through the city in the back of a utility vehicle.
It was the first public punishment carried out under Muslim law by Aceh's powerful student groups, in this case the Student Movement Against Immorality, which are emerging as key players in the province's struggle for independence.
Aceh, at the north-west tip of Indonesia's island of Sumatra, is deeply Muslim and the students' administration of public punishment in the centre of the capital is one more sign of Indonesia's diminishing civil authority and the growing strength of the independence movement.
Student groups are now very influential players in Aceh politics. The student groups were the main organisers of the massive rally for independence in Banda Aceh one month ago which brought an estimated million people onto the streets to demand an independence referendum.
But they also see themselves as moral guardians with a responsibility to carry out punishment under Islamic principles, and the application of Islamic law is a key part of their political agenda. Such punishment is not at all unusual in Aceh, but is usually administered by religious authorities.
"The penalty is by no means large but just enough to discourage people from committing something," said a student spokesman. "Our main task is to pursue a referendum which leads to the independence of Aceh. At the same time, we would like our people to behave and not lose their morality."
The public support enjoyed by the students makes them a power centre to rival the hardline Free Aceh Movement (GAM), the 23- year-old independence group which maintains armed fighters in Aceh's mountainous interior.
In contrast to GAM, which favours installing its leader, Acehnese nobleman Tengku Hasan di Tiro, as an autocratic king, the students want Aceh to be a democracy.
Mr Muhammad Nazar, the leader of the student umbrella group the Information Centre for an Aceh Referendum (SIRA), said he was confident GAM would agree to forming a democratic State. "The kingdom is only a political strategy," he said.
Aceh's student groups badly need international support in their campaign for an Aceh referendum. "SIRA is ready to co-operate with countries and human rights organisations which are pro-active in peace and democracy," Mr Muhammad said.