John Aglionby, Kembang Tanjung – When Mohammed Assegaf and his two friends finished describing how Indonesian soldiers had killed some people and terrorised dozens of others in their part of Aceh province during the past two months, they slipped out of the cafe's back door, across the paddy fields, and away.
Outside the front door were three heavily armed plainclothes policemen demanding to know what was going on. People active in criticising the authorities or promoting the idea that Aceh – and its natural wealth – should break away from Indonesia risk arrest, or worse. Such intimidation is commonplace now in this resource-rich province at the north-western tip of Sumatra.
According to independence supporters and human rights workers, troops have killed more than 200 civilians and burned hundreds of homes since January in what army commanders describe as their latest operation to defeat the Free Aceh Movement (GAM), a guerrilla group that has been waging an armed independence struggle since 1976.
The GAM is contributing to the latest violence, but human rights activists say the army's aim is much broader than the defeat of a rebel group. They suspect the aim is to crush the apparent desire of the majority of Aceh's 4m people for an East Timor-style referendum on the province's status.
This became manifest at the end of last year in rallies across the province. "The government became very scared when it saw how much momentum the referendum campaign was developing," said Mohammed Nazar, the coordinator of the campaign for a ballot on independence from Jakarta. "It responded in the only way it knows."
Not only are civilians being killed, he and others say, but human rights workers, students and journalists are being prevented from reaching affected areas. "We no longer dare man posts where people can report atrocities to us," said Muliadi, a student in the town of Lhokseumawe. "Too many people have been beaten up, arrested or detained without reason."
"Five death threats a day is nothing out of the ordinary now," according to Hamdani Rukiah, the bureau chief in the Aceh town of Lhokseumawe for the main daily newspaper in the province, Serambi Indonesia.
There are dozens of checkpoints and roadblocks on the main roads through the province. A lecturer at a university in the provincial capital, Banda Aceh, said he was on a bus journey recently where all the men were ordered off in three different towns and strip searched. He called this "pure terror tactics".
Independence activists also say people are losing out financially. The February coffee crop in the central highlands was 40% down on last year's, according to them, because people were too scared to be in the fields in the crucial weeks before the harvest.
Such local informants say the repression is worse than in the 1990s, when several thousand people were killed in nine years of similar operations, and it worries them that this seems to be condoned internationally.
When Tony Blair met President Abdurrahman Wahid in February, he pledged British support for Indonesia's territorial integrity. Other foreign leaders, including Bill Clinton, have done likewise.
The GAM is far from blameless in the current violence. Many village heads have reported repeated intimidation by its members. "They regularly extort money, demand the use of cars and motorbikes and steal food," said Suraiya Kamaruzzaman, the executive director of Flower Aceh, a group seeking to promote women's rights in rural Aceh. "Anyone who refuses to help is at great risk of being attacked."
Exacerbating the situation is the presence of other armed groups. They are among the elements becoming bolder in Indonesia now that Jakarta's dictatorship is gone. In the past few months in Aceh young men, known as "atoms", who lost their fathers in the early 1990s terror have started a chaotic revenge campaign.
"They get hold of guns and then attack police and military posts without thinking about the consequences," said one analyst who asked not to be named.
Mafias from Medan, the city just south of Aceh, have also begun operating this year. "They mainly steal cars, motorbikes and electronic goods," said the analyst. "But they are creating massive fear and panic among the people."
Human rights workers believe that – caught between such groups, the GAM and the military – most of Aceh's people would probably be satisfied to stick with the federal government, if Jakarta would only offer as much carrot as it is doling out stick.
"People still want a referendum because they have lost all confidence in the central government," said Maimul Fidar, the head of a group called Coalition for Human Rights. "If the government treated the people with respect then it would probably win a vote." This is borne out by people in villages who see independence as "peace", "an end to the violence", "no more terror" and "withdrawing all the soldiers".
But while the central government, which took more than 99% of Aceh's resource revenue until last year, has started investing more in the province, the perception is still widespread that Jakarta does not care.
"All we see is the pain of being part of Indonesia and none of the benefits," said Mr Nazar. "The government is not being serious with us." He points to the constant delay of the first trial of military human rights violators as a case in point. It was due to begin last month but is unlikely to get under way until April at the earliest; the government's latest excuse is that it cannot find the money needed to stage it.
Moderates in Aceh believe the best way forward is for President Wahid to offer a referendum in several years, halt the repression and work hard to win the people's hearts and minds. "Such tactics have a great chance of success," said Muhammad Yus, the speaker of the provincial legislature. "We would then have a firm bargaining position with GAM, and once peace is established most people will be happy.
"The government has to take the first step but it seems incapable of doing so. It does not seem to realise that it cannot win over the Acehnese through force."