Jakarta – Some 2,000 pro-independence Acehnese staged a huge rally in front of the UN office in the Indonesian capital Wednesday demanding international intervention to end the fighting in the rebellious state.

The protestors waved the Acehnese flag, a symbol of independence for the resource-rich province on the tip of Sumatra island, and tied five of them to the fence of the UN building in the city center.

Police stood by, most of them trying to divert traffic snarled for hours on a main traffic artery by the huge crowd of protestors, who also carried UN, US and British national flags, an AFP reporter said. One huge banner read: "United Nations, please solve the Aceh conflict by your intervention."

The rally marked the first anniversary of a mass rally by some one million Acehnese in the provincial capital of Banda Aceh on November 8 last year demanding a referendum on self-determnination. A similar mass gathering organized by the Information Center for Aceh Referendum (SIRA) is scheduled to be held on Friday and Saturday in Banda Aceh, residents there have said.

A SIRA leaflet distributed at Wednesday's Jakarta rally called the Indonesian government "neo-colonialist" and said it could not be expected to come up with a solution to the continuing violence between the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) and government troops.

"The kind of ... crimes against humanity conducted by the government of Indonesia have destroyed the culture and economy of Aceh," the statement said. "Abitrary military operations conducted by the government of Indonesia are obvious violations of the general understanding for the humanitarian pause between the state of Aceh and the colonialist government," it said.

"Humanitarian pause" is the name given to a flawed truce signed in May between GAM's exile government and Jakarta which is still in effect but has failed to end the violence.

The statement made three demands – that the United Nations and the international community intervene to seek a peaceful end to the conflict, that Aceh's historical right to independence be recognized, and that UN members pressure Indonesia to halt the violence in the province. After some two hours the ralliers, shouting "Freedom" and "God is great," marched in a huge column towards the nearby US embassy.

Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid, who authorized the brokering of the truce, has ruled out independence for Aceh, but promised it broad autonomy instead.