Pidie – An unmarked mound of muddy earth marks the grave of Abdullah Syafii, the Acehnese guerrilla commander killed by Indonesian troops last week.
Hos simple grave fits the spartan lifestyle that people say he lived but it is unmarked for another reason. "If we put the names there the security forces will come and take the body. Later if it's peaceful, we'll put the names," said a man who was afraid to be identified.
Instead of a tombstone, a green twig with two wilting leaves marks Syafii's last resting place. Beside it are three other mounds of dirt where his wife and two close associates from Syafii's Free Aceh Movement (GAM) were buried with him on January 23.
They all died the day before in a raid by Indonesian troops on Syafii's jungle base elsewhere in Pidie district. Indonesian commanders say 20 troops on a routine patrol carried out the raid but a GAM spokesman quoted in the Serambi daily newspaper on Tuesday disputed that.
The spokesman alleged that Syafii died after a three-day battle with up to 600 Indonesian troops, some of whom were wounded and had to be evacuated by helicopter.
Syafii's funeral was tightly guarded by Indonesian soldiers. Only family and local residents attended.
He is buried within metres of what locals say was his home in Cubo, a rice-growing village accessible by a fragile plank bridge across a river. Like many in the area, Syafii's house is built from unpainted wooden planks and has a metal roof. "It's very different from the house of the Indonesian commander," said the unidentified man, who denied he is a member of GAM.
On Tuesday a continuous flow of mourners, mostly women in a rainbow of colourful outfits, filed past the burial site and toured the four-room house. Some bent down to grab a small ball of dirt from the graves, a keepsake they will use at home when they pray.
"Most of them are women because the men are afraid," said one of the few young men in the area. The women arrived about 20 at a time, crowded into the back of small trucks. Some were smiling as they arrived. When they left, a few were weeping.
Local residents said Syafii did not live in the house very long. It was burned twice by the security forces, they said. The house shows signs of charring and is empty except for a heavy wooden bed frame.
The GAM has been fighting for an independent Islamic state since 1976. Violence involving rebels and government troops has already left some 10,000 killed, some 1,700 of them last year.
The rebel group has rejected Jakarta's offer of greater autonomy and more revenues from its natural riches and demands nothing short of independence, which Jakarta has ruled out.
US-based Human Rights Watch, in a recent report, said most of the deaths last year were civilians caught in military operations. But it said GAM was "also responsible for serious abuses."