IT was three and a half years ago. During a ceremony on December 4, 1999, to mark the anniversary of the founding of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM), a unit of women fighters wearing headscarves, dressed in military fatigues and armed with AK-47 and M-16 rifles were paraded before journalists and cameramen. The unit consisted of 135 women lined up in ranks as in a regular army. "There are also a lot of women fighters here who are not in uniform.