Carol Goar – Her house is uninhabitable. Her town has been reduced to rubble. She has lost relatives and friends. Yet Evi Zain dares to believe that good will come of the tsunami that devastated Aceh province five months ago.

It has drawn the eyes of the world to her little-known corner of Indonesia. And what observers have found is that long before the natural disaster struck, Aceh was in the grip of a humanitarian disaster.

Men who ran afoul of the military disappeared. Women suspected of abetting the Free Aceh movement were raped or worse. "Don't just monitor the reconstruction," Zain pleaded. "Monitor the abuses."

The 32-year-old co-ordinator of Kontras Aceh, an underground Indonesian human rights organization, is in Canada to urge the government and citizens who donated generously to the tsunami relief effort to help bring peace to her troubled region. Acehnese are grateful for the West's money, she says, but what they need even more than cash is freedom from repression and fear.

Zain can assure Canadians that some of the aid they sent is reaching some of the tsunami survivors. But people who live outside the army-controlled displaced persons camps get nothing. People who dare to question the distribution of relief supplies are cut off. Fishers, who have been forced into the hills, wonder how they will feed their families when the aid runs out. "The government won't let the international community into Aceh," Zain said. "How can people speak out?"

What Kontras Aceh and its Canadian partners – a coalition of churchees, unions and development groups – want Ottawa to do is ensure that Western aid is being used for genuine reconstruction; insist that international relief workers be allowed into the region to report on human rights violations; and press the Indonesian government to get the army out of Aceh. "We want recovery with a true peace process that involves all of civil society," Zain said.

Peace is a luxury she can scarcely imagine. Since she was 3 years old, Aceh has been embroiled in a bitter civil war between armed separatist rebels and the Indonesian government. Thousands of innocent Acehnese have been killed. Many more have been driven from their villages, tortured and terrorized.

Zain first became aware of the conflict as a teenager, when streams of displaced people would pour into her hometown of Lhokeseumawe, seeking refuge in her school. Her teacher wouldn't tell her what was going on.

Her parents didn't know. The fugitives were too frightened to speak. "You have to remember that under Suharto [the deposed strongman who ruled Indonesia for 30 years], we had no books, no information, just government-controlled TV and newspapers," she said.

But gradually, Zain began to piece together the story. At 23 years of age, she joined a local human rights organization. The group met secretly and investigated disappearances and reports of torture. But her activities were detected and her friends hustled her out of the region to escape persecution.

Zain remembers the euphoria she felt in 1998 when Suharto was toppled. "All the students and human rights workers were so happy. We thought the government would change."

There was brief respite from the hostilities and an attempt to negotiate a peaceful solution. Acehnese tasted the elixir of hope. But the talks collapsed in May of 2003 and the military launched a new offensive.

Since the tsunami hit last December, Aceh has been under a state of civil emergency, which allows the military to bar foreign journalists and aid workers, root out human rights workers and hunt down Free Aceh sympathizers.

According to Zain, women are being abused in the displaced persons camps, government and military officials are keeping – and in some cases selling – Western aid, and civilians have been shut out of the reconstruction process.

But the world is finally hearing Aceh's story. Zain testified at the United Nations Commission on Human Rights in Geneva before coming to Canada. She will continue to speak out abroad, although she runs the risk of harsh reprisals at home.

She believes Canadians want to help the people of her benighted province. She entreats them to offer more than emergency relief.

Zain does not want to see Aceh restored to the way it was before the tsunami struck. She wants to see it rebuilt on a foundation of freedom.