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In November 2007, 1 met Darwis Djeunib, a former Free Aceh Movement (Gerakan Aceh Merdeka, GAM) guerrilla leader at his brand new home in Bireuen, on the east coast of Aceh. During the years of war in Aceh, Darwis had been a legendary rebel leader, as famous for his austere personal lifestyle as for his daring raids on army posts. He was also well-known for his humble origins: beginning as an ordinary village boy, he became in his youth a small-time yreman, or gangster, in Medan, and then worked as a day-laborer in Malaysia and Singapore, where he joined GAM and was sent to Libya for military training. More years of privation and hardship followed. Now, since the Helsinki Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed by representatives of GAM and the Indonesian government in August 2005, Darwis's

1 This article is written on the basis of my research in and about Aceh over the last ten years …