LHOONG, Indonesia—As a rebel fighter, Marjuni Ibrahim hid out
in Aceh’s jungle. These days he leads "guerrilla tours" taking visitors with a
taste for extreme hiking and an interest in Aceh’s turbulent past over the same
terrain.
The treks in the northwestern tip of Indonesia are an attempt
to lift Aceh out of poverty by developing local tourism projects and reviving
the crippled economy after a 30-year conflict and a devastating tsunami in 2004.
So just as tourists in Vietnam can scramble through the Cu Chi tunnels used by
the Vietcong in the Vietnam war, visitors to Aceh can see where the separatist
Free Aceh Movement (GAM) hid from or fought against the Indonesian army (TNI)
until as recently as 2005 when the two sides signed a peace agreement.
Marjuni takes tourists on a scramble over sharp rocky trails,
past teak trees cloaked in creepers, and alongside pristine waterfalls and
sparkling rock pools.
This part of Aceh is home to the endangered Sumatran tiger,
deer, and hornbills, as well as rather less appealing leeches.
"The area is very beautiful. I like trekking and I was
interested to see what life was like during the conflict," said Hugo Lamers, a
Dutch aid worker who went on one of the guerrilla tours last year.
"It’s difficult to imagine but three or more years ago they
were running around here with guns and fighting the TNI. When I went, they took
us to a place where they had lost some of their friends. And then you realize
that we are there for fun, but for them this was really serious."
Some of the hikes cover terrain where fighting took place or
where visitors can see reminders of the conflict such as leftover army foodpacks
and army graffiti. But a few of GAM’s former hiding places still remain secret;
perhaps for fear that they might one day be needed again.
Marjuni, now 28, joined GAM when he was 20, driven by
"injustices, such as the murders of civilians by the TNI just because they were
suspected GAM."
An estimated 15,000 people died during nearly three decades of fighting for
Aceh’s independence. Many others were tortured by the Indonesian military, or
traumatized by the conflict. —Reuters
