Katherine Arie – Just weeks after the December 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami left over 230,000 people dead or missing in Indonesia's Aceh province, a decades-old conflict between government forces and Acehnese separatists flared up once again.
Even on the day after the tsunami, government forces launched military operations that killed four members of Aceh's separatist movement. Since the disaster, the government says it has killed some 200 separatists.
But the sheer scale of the tsunami tragedy softened hearts, and in late January 2005 representatives of the Indonesian government and rebel leaders met face to face in Helsinki for the first peace talks in nearly two years.
The government and rebels had reached a deal in 2003, but it collapsed in part over the sticky issue of autonomy. Shortly thereafter, the government launched a massive military offensive and imposed a state of emergency.
The Helsinki talks in January, while cordial, failed to make a breakthrough and a settlement remains elusive. According to political analysts, neither side is willing to give any ground. They say the separatists will accept nothing less than independence while Jakarta has no intention of giving up the resource-rich province.
What are the origins of the separatist movement in Aceh?
The Gerakan Aceh Merdeka (GAM), or the Free Aceh Movement, began in 1976 when founder Hasan di Tiro initiated an armed struggle against Jakarta and declared Aceh's independence. Fierce reaction from government troops forced de Tiro and other GAM leaders to flee to Sweden, where they live to this day.
GAM's main grievances include economic and social issues, Indonesian military heavy handedness in suppressing resistance, as well as the more fundamental and deep-rooted issue of nationalism.
Why nationalism? But aren't the people of Aceh Indonesian?
Acehnese don't consider themselves Indonesian, a fact GAM uses as justification for the insurgency and as fodder for popularising its cause. GAM maintains that Jakarta is an occupying power in Aceh, and that the Acehnese people are culturally and linguistically different from other Indonesians.
The Acehnese language is related to modern Malay languages, which include most other languages in Indonesia – Indonesian, Javanese, and Balinese – but it also has clear ties to Chamic languages, which are primarily found in southern Vietnam.
This concept of Acehnese distinctiveness is key to understanding how Acehnese people see themselves vis-a-vis other Indonesians. Acehnese identity was largely formed in the 16th century, when Aceh, then an independent sultanate, emerged as a crucial player in the southeast Indian Ocean trade.
Trade brought the Acehnese into contact with fellow Muslim traders from present day India, the Arabian peninsula and as far away as the Ottoman empire. On the other hand, Aceh's relationship with traditional Indonesians, in particular the Javanese, Indonesia's largest ethnic group was limited despite their proximity.
How has Aceh's identity influenced its history?
The development of Acehnese identity helped to reinforce a feisty resistance to foreign domination over the past two centuries. Aceh has a proud history of fending off outsiders, including repeated invasions by Dutch colonisers in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
After World War Two, when Aceh was briefly occupied by Japan, control of the province fell to the newly independent Java-based state of Indonesia.
In the 1950s, Acehnese pro-Islamic rebels challenged the secular, central government in Jakarta, winning autonomy in religious, educational and cultural matters in 1959. To this day, practicing Muslims in Aceh are more orthodox than most other Indonesians.
GAM has used Aceh's reputation for throwing off the yoke of foreign domination as a rallying cry since the 1970s.
How popular is the separatist movement?
While most Acehnese support the insurgency in general, it is debatable whether there is widespread support for GAM, and many people do not find its historical arguments wholly persuasive.
Sympathy for the separatist movement has waxed and waned over the years. At different times Acehnese civilians have blamed GAM and its guerrilla tactics – the destruction of schools, government institutions and power lines, kidnappings and hijackings – for the brutal crackdowns visited upon them by military forces, although there is evidence that violence perpetrated by the military, especially in recent years, has spurred calls for independence.
The perception that Jakarta is exploiting the region feeds deep resentment. Aceh provides 15 to 20 percent Indonesia's gas and oil output but it remains one of the country's poorest provinces. That Aceh has not reaped obvious benefits from its vast natural resources is a point of contention that has been discussed in peace negotiations over the years.
What is the humanitarian situation in Aceh now?
Post-tsunami, the humanitarian situation in Aceh has never been more dire. The tsunami destroyed scores of villages and ruined infrastructure. Overall damage estimates have topped $4.4 billion.
More than 400,000 people have been left homeless and are at risk of disease, particularly measles and malaria. Survivors of the disaster are psychologically traumatised, and doctors estimate that some 90 percent will suffer post-traumatic stress disorder.
Even before the tsunami disaster, conflict had taken its toll. Much of the province's infrastructure was dysfunctional. Back in 2003, following the massive government offensive, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) warned that the population would not be able to rely on the already weak health services.
To make matters worse, thousands of civilians were caught in the crossfire between GAM fighters and military forces. Since the early 1990s, human rights groups have documented serious human rights violations and abuses by both sides.
Aid has poured in to the devastated province, and the task of rebuilding has begun. Here, at least, the Indonesian government and GAM have the same goal. Even so, it looks unlikely that negotiators will ultimately find common ground.