Indonesia's War over Aceh

By 2003 Indonesia had made such a military commitment to the province of Aceh as to make it the biggest war in the area since the 1975 East Timor invasion. The problems presented by rebellious Aceh show many of the fundamental vulnerabilities of the Indonesian state itself, to the point where possible secession has provoked quite extreme and uncompromising reactions from Jakarta's ruling elites. So severe are the challenges posed by Acehnese separatism that Indonesia's post-New Order government has embraced a new era of censorship, disinformation and frenzied lobbying, all of which have distorted many important facts about the War and its causes. This book presents the background and history of the war in Aceh, and investigates the domestic and regional implications, and common misunderstanding surrounding its various issues. Drawing on vast open sources of information normally unseen by the English-speaking world, it presents a detailed and critical examination of internal and external drivers of the war and its structure as an 'intelligence report' for public consumption.