It was just daybreak in Cot Krueung, Aceh Besar, Monday May 19. No sooner had the silence of the morning been suddenly broken by the booming of 14 jet fighters racing through the skies than a fusillade was heard. Two OV-10 Bronco anti-guerrilla aircraft fired rockets at targets on the ground.

The firing of these rockets at the base of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) marked the beginning of the dropping of 468 airborne army soldiers from