PRIVATE 1st Class Rohmadi seemed stunned into silence. His face was serious as though he were praying. He leant a backpack stuffed full of provisions and a machine gun against the quay. This was the first time the man from Solo, Java had set foot in Aceh, the turbulent and bloody westernmost part of Indonesia.

Rohmadi was not alone. He and a thousand other soldiers had just disembarked from the navy ship KRI Amboina, which had sailed from Jakarta