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The counterinsurgency strategy being carried out by the Indonesian military is designed to separate the guerrillas from their popular base by forcibly moving villagers into secure compounds or so-called "strategic hamlets" reminiscent of the Vietnam War. .
The government estimates that the number of internally displaced people in Aceh will increase to 100,000 from the current 5,000. .
As in many other places in the world where ethnic minorities have revolted against state authority, there is an attempt to portray the separatists as terrorists who must be crushed militarily. .
However, this characterisation flies in the face of the historical record. .
The Acehnese resisted Dutch colonial domination during the 18th and 19th centuries and were at the forefront of Indonesia's fight for independence during the 1940s. .
When Indonesia declared independence in 1945, Aceh was promised autonomy but never received it. .
One of the grievances fueling the rebellion in Aceh is the secret war waged against GAM in the 1990s under the Suharto military dictatorship, which lasted from 1965 to 1998. .
From May 1990 to August 1998, Aceh was declared a Military Operations Area, during which the Indonesian armed forces carried out extensive counterinsurgency operations against the GAM. .
In this period, thousands of civilians were killed, disappeared or tortured. .
More than 12,000 Acehnese have been killed by Indonesian troops since the GAM demanded independence in 1976. .
According to Carmel Budiardjo, the founder and director of TAPOL, the Indonesia Human Rights Campaign in London: "Human rights violations- state terror - and the failure to punish the perpetrators, have done more to make the Acehnese secessionists than their many other grievances." .
One of the first priorities for the invading soldiers was to secure the Exxon Mobil natural gas plant near the major city of Lhokseumawe, which exports to Japan and South Korea.
