Mark Forbes – On Boxing Day Irwandi Yusuf clambered onto a roof inside Banda Aceh's prison and watched a torrent of water wash the walls and most other inmates away.
This week he witnessed his dreams of an independent Aceh vanish as he surrendered guns for peace monitors to destroy.
Mr Yusuf was an elephant vet before leading freedom fighters in Aceh's jungles. "The tsunami freed me from prison and sent me to Helsinki," he said. Now the catastrophe's reverberations have raised new hope for his embattled province.
Imprisoned and tortured for his role in the conflict, Mr Yusuf fled through the chaos to Jakarta, then to Malaysia to escape a manhunt, and on to Finland's capital, where Free Aceh Movement (GAM) leaders and Indonesia forged a peace treaty last month.
The treaty is crucial to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who came to power promising to end the 30-year conflict that has killed nearly 15,000 people, most of them civilians. Dr Yudhoyono must contend with the military's staunch nationalism and desperation to avoid perceptions of another East Timor-style loss.
There is dissent against peace on both sides: some GAM fighters refuse to emerge from the jungle, and many in the Indonesian military are reluctant to forgo the hundreds of millions they reap from Aceh. Already Indonesian supporters have protested against monitors from the European Union and Asian nations, raising fears of an East Timor-style destabilisation campaign.
Under the peace deal, GAM agreed to disarm by Christmas and abandon independence in return for amnesties, autonomy, the withdrawal of most troops and a share of the billions allocated to rebuild Aceh.
Aceh was under martial law until the tsunami, and killings continued in its wake, stalling reconstruction. With international attention focused on the province, there is optimism this peace deal will stick, unlike two previous attempts.
Mr Yusuf smiled as he passed machine-guns, rocket launchers and AK-47s to international monitors on a parade ground in Banda Aceh on Thursday.
He and his group of jungle rebels had arrived in a motorcycle convoy, many riding for more than 24 hours in a test of their new freedom. They had toured Banda Aceh's ruins, wept in its Grand Mosque and watched their weapons being cut into scrap.
"It's just like letting your first wife go," said Muzakir, a GAM veteran. Another commander, Sofyan Dawood, said that the 3000-strong fighters would disband and there would be no more armed struggle. Aside from Indonesia's failure to crush GAM under martial law, Mr Yusuf credits the tsunami for a new mentality on both sides. "Our soldiers here in Aceh Besar, most have lost all their relatives," he said.
Indonesia's Minister for Information and Communications, Sofyan Djalil, was a key player in the Helsinki talks. He was born in Aceh, but GAM threats kept him away for many years.
He believes GAM's leaders want peace. The crackdown weakened the rebels, but this treaty "is completely different because the tsunami actually changed so many things", he said. Major-General Bambang Darmono, the army's infantry commander, once led the fight against GAM and has been chosen by Dr Yudhoyono to supervise a peace process that has left many soldiers uneasy.
If GAM handed in 210 weapons, a quarter of its declared stocks, 6500 troops would begin withdrawing the next day, General Darmono said.
He denied that militias existed in Aceh, but said there could be some "rejection" of the peace. Sofyan Ali told the Herald his anti-GAM separatist resistance front had 350,000 members. Peace, and GAM, must be given a chance, he said, but "we will keep watching".