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On August 15, 2005, in Helsinki, Finland, representatives of the Indonesian government and the Free Aceh Movement (Gerakan Aceh Merdeka, GAM) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) aiming to end the conflict in Aceh, Indonesia’s westernmost province and the site of an armed insurgency that has operated at varying levels of intensity since 1976. The immediate background to the peace talks when they began in January 2005, did not seem propitious. There had already been two failed peace accords in recent years. In 2000, a" Humanitarian Pause" had generated only a temporary halt to the violence, while a December 2002" Cessation of Hostilities Agreement"(COHA) ended when the Indonesian government declared a" military emergency" in Aceh in May 2003 and announced that it wanted to destroy GAM once and for all. Aceh seemed destined to endure many more years of armed conflict. The next two years, however, saw important changes on both sides that paved the way for a return to talks. The government’s military offensive took a major toll on GAM and gave rise to battle fatigue among its supporters. Some GAM leaders began to feel that their existing strategy of armed struggle for independence had reached an impasse. Meanwhile, a presidential election in late 2004 handed control of the Indonesian government to two men, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Vice President Jusuf Kalla, who were personally committed to negotiations as a means of ending conflict. Early steps toward reopening talks occurred in late 2004 and were accelerated by the impact of the devastating Indian Ocean tsunami of …