IT is not unusual for news coming out of a "special" area like Aceh to worry good-intentioned people. After all, no one has been rejoicing since the military state of emergency was declared after midnight on May 19 in Indonesia's easternmost province. A clear decision was needed at the time to deal with the continuing problem of the armed Free Aceh Movement (GAM).

We are referring to last Tuesday's incident when security forces tried to stop a