For 26 years, the rebels of Aceh have preferred to die fighting rather than call themselves Indonesians. They say Indonesia stole their land and riches and they want them back - whatever the cost. Last year alone, 2000 people, most of them civilians, were killed in the fighting, and government forces stand accused of waging a dirty war of rape, torture and execution. In a darkened room, six youths remove their shirts to reveal a patchwork of scars and burns across their backs. They were imprisoned for 10 days for suspected membership of the Free Aceh Movement, or GAM, and during this time they were beaten and tortured constantly. From her prison cell, Lesley McCulloch, a British academic arrested for her supposed links with the GAM, states the case for a diplomatic solution to the conflict: “By pursuing a military solution, they’re just heightening the sense of fear, the victim and revenge mentality that is perpetuating the problem here.” But with the cycle of violence so ingrained on both sides, what hope is there for a peaceful future?

A report by Jonathan Miller for Unreported World.

Produced by Mentorn