Terry Friel, Jeunieb – Indonesia's generals insist they are winning the war against the rag-tag rebels fighting for independence for the bountiful province of Aceh, but after dusk at one of hundreds of rebel barricades on the main north-south highway the reality is different.
"We're sorry to bother you sir, no problems, yes?" said one of the guerrillas as they shook hands and began posing for pictures for a group of Reuters journalists they had stopped, before melting back into the night.
The 40,000 heavily-armed police and troops in Aceh, accused of brutal attacks on civilians in their bid to quell the rebels, cannot stop the guerrillas taking control of the countryside after the sun goes down.
The fighting has condemned most people in this devoutly Muslim territory on the northern tip of Sumatra island to a life of violence, intimidation, food shortages and suffering. The crackle of gunfire is heard sporadically and the rebels bomb military compounds and government facilities almost every day and night.
A leading international rights group this week accused both sides of violating human rights with impunity in the increasingly bloody conflict. The New York-based Human Rights Watch said Jakarta had "utterly failed" to control the military and police operating in Aceh and called on new President Megawati Sukarnoputri to quickly set up human rights courts to prosecute serious violations.
"There is no question that both sides have been responsible for unlawful killings, as well as a wide range of other abuses," Sidney Jones, Asia director of Human Rights Watch, said.
The violence has intensified in recent months and more than 1,500 civilians are estimated to have been killed since the start of the year.
Troops holed up in barracks
The security forces remain mostly holed up in their heavily-defended compounds behind their own barricades in the villages and towns, occasionally venturing out to patrol the highway – Aceh's lifeblood for supplies from the south. The military and police are so badly resourced themselves that patrols routinely steal food and water from locals struggling to feed their own families.
Any vehicle arriving at a rebel roadblock – often just a felled coconut tree – before the guerrillas have moved on to make the next one draws a warning volley of semi-automatic fire. The occupants are forced to lie face down on the hot tarmac while their identities are checked.
Acehnese civilians and foreigners generally have nothing to fear at the barricades. GAM deputy military chief Sofyan Daud later apologised to a Reuters news crew for his men's actions as he entertained the journalists over soft drinks and peanuts.
Rebels also blamed
But GAM, too, is accused of human rights abuses and many people are afraid to talk publicly to foreign reporters for fear of reprisals from both sides. "They are just as brutal," a local academic told Reuters, too frightened to allow his name to be published, said of GAM. "We are caught between two powers." The security forces and the rebels both deny their poorly trained men are guilty of any systematic human rights abuses.
Aceh's war for independence has brought the economy to a standstill, sent thousands fleeing their homes and badly hit farming in one of Indonesia's most fertile areas. The war has killed thousands, mostly civilians and aid groups estimate 15,000-20,000 people are homeless at any given time in the province of four million.
In many areas outside the provincial capital, Banda Aceh, few people dare work the fields, shops are tightly shuttered, buses run only sporadically, the roads are largely empty and the electricity supply was lost long ago. Many schools have been destroyed – a favourite GAM target because of their vulnerability and their symbolism of Jakarta's rule – and thousands of homes have been torched.
"If they aren't losing their lives, they are losing their livelihoods," Oxfam's humanitarian project manager in Banda Aceh, Prasant Naik, told Reuters. "People either can't get the food, they can't grow it, or they can't work to earn the money to buy it." Infant mortality is rising and Oxfam estimates 25 percent of the rural population are at risk of starving to death. The Banda Aceh academic says about one million people live below the poverty line of 60,000 rupiah ($6.90) a month.
The exact extent of the suffering is impossible to determine because of the war. Several local aid workers have been beaten up and others forced to flee the province fearing for their lives.
The situation is a little better in the seaside provincial capital, where restaurants and businesses open as usual and the markets are relatively full. But even there, military, police and government posts are dug in behind tight security and Indonesia's rule on the streets ends at the city outskirts at dusk. Indonesian authorities conduct arbitrary searches and arrests as they try to quell the rebel threat.
For the frightened and pessimistic academic, the cycle of violence gripping Aceh will be hard to break. "The actions of the security forces means people are just becoming victims," he says. "Then the children of the victims grow up and become passionate and it just keeps exploding."