William Nessen, Cot Trieng, Aceh – Inside a 20-kilometre circle of marsh and shoulder-high grass dotted by thick patches of rattan and palm trees, Indonesia's military, the TNI, has aimed to end the nation's most persistent rebellion.
In its most concentrated attack against independence guerillas in years, the TNI has sent tanks, helicopters, rockets and warplanes to bombard a desolate swamp in the northern part of Aceh province.
Soldiers said they had repeatedly used up the local stock of mortar shells and deployed thousands of men to surround military leaders and rank-and-file fighters of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) during the past month near the village of Cot Trieng.
Indonesian newspapers cover the drama daily, repeating the military's claims to have trapped GAM leaders at a guerilla headquarters or at least ensnared dozens of fighters.
However, the guerillas are probably long gone. Last week a local TNI commander quietly told journalists he suspected there were no guerillas there, but asked them not to say anything.
Like the siege, the apparent progress towards a political solution in talks in Geneva overlooks why GAM will not surrender its guns.
"We have absolutely no trust of the Indonesians," said Nasir Djamin, 32, an MP who wants a referendum for the province. "We will be at their mercy."
As if to punctuate these sentiments, a human rights activist, Musliadi, 26, and an assistant lecturer at the local university, Nasri, 27, were kidnapped by armed Indonesian men this week. The security forces said they knew nothing about it. Musliadi's body was found floating in the river on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, GAM's intelligence chief, Teungku Hanadeuh, this week claimed that he and GAM's military leader, Muzakhir Manaf, had tricked the Indonesians at Cot Trieng.
He said he wanted the story told because he feared the TNI would withdraw soon, without admitting they had been deceived, and claim to be supporting the peaceful spirit of the Geneva talks.
The swamp drama began as part of a broad TNI operation in northern Aceh aimed at catching Manaf. As the TNI approached Cot Trieng village on October 29 guerillas attacked. But with hundreds of troops bearing down on them, the rebels withdrew into the swamp.
Soldiers arrested two men, who told them dozens of male civilians had fled with the guerillas. With rumours of top GAM men in the area and the discovery of the mobile phone of the local GAM commander, Syaridin, at the edge of the swamp, the TNI's number two man in the area, Brigadier-General Bambang Darmono, said he decided to bring in moremen. "Normally, we'll chase them for a few days and then pull out, and GAM knows it. This time I wasn't going to let them get away."
On October 31 GAM declared a ceasefire for the holy fasting month of Ramadan in the hope that Indonesia would follow suit. Instead, the military and media took it as further evidence that GAM leaders were surrounded.
Syaridin and his men were in the swamp, but only for three days, he said. On the night of November 3 the last fighters crawled to safety through stands of sharp water rattan that ripped and bloodied the men and took them within an arm's length of Indonesian soldiers.
It was at that point, he said, that he called Manaf to suggest a bit of old Acehnese trickery.
Pretending the guerillas were surrounded in the swamp, a GAM radio operator began broadcasting an SOS. A second radioman answered immediately. Other GAM units would try to help; be careful and remain calm.
The night he escaped, Syaridin called his own phone and pretended to be in the swamp. A TNI commander told him to surrender, that he and the GAM fighters would be treated as POWs, rather than criminals.
"You are our brothers," a TNI commander told them, according to accounts of both sides.
Syaridin responded: "We don't have the word 'surrender' in our vocabulary. Come on in and fight us." Within 10 minutes of his call, about 11.30pm, the TNI began firing mortars into the area. On and off during the next 2 days the shelling continued, residents in the area said.
Brigadier-General Bambang said the TNI had not launched a final attack because he feared civilian casualties. Rather than fleeing willingly with the guerillas, the civilians were forced to act as shields, the general said.
Despite the assertion of Indonesian authorities that the tens of thousands of troops had made significant military inroads at serious cost to GAM, the guerillas maintained that they remained confident about their ability to fight, and, as they claimed at Cot Trieng, to hoodwink their adversaries sometimes.