Female backers of Aceh's rebels now battle to rebuild lives

"Because of the conflict, women in the villages suffer trauma. They remember the fighting. They lack confidence, they don't have the motivation to study or improve themselves," says Sabariah, a mother of seven who joined GAM after her husband, a rebel fighter, was shot dead by Indonesian soldiers in 2001.

Aid workers say targeted livelihood programs, which combine skills training with career guidance, offer one way to tackle these disparities.

Juayriah started her clothing business after receiving training and a $1,000 grant last year from the International Organization for Migration, which had facilitated her return from prison. The IOM began a similar effort last month for 3,000 ex-combatants, one third of whom are women.

Juayriah originally wanted to invest in her chili business, but lost her crop to flooding. IOM advisers suggested she try selling clothes door to door from her motorbike, both as a way of earning more money and spending more time away from the house she shares with 14 family members.

It seems to be working: officials say Juayriah is less anxious, and has gained confidence. "I think she enjoys her life more now. She has her own income," says Mohamed Hasan, an IOM trainer.

Juayriah says she still occasionally wakes at night, her heart thumping from nightmares of soldiers at her door. She shifts uncomfortably when she recalls her arrest in April 2005, and the threats to kill her unless she led her tormentors to GAM's secret hideout. Today, when she goes on sales rounds, she insists that her sister come. "I'm not brave enough to ride the motorbike by myself. My sister drives, and I sit behind her," she explains.

Such emotions are common among survivors of a conflict that took the lives of more than 12,000 people and provoked repressive measures, including periods of martial law and news blackouts. Human rights groups say the routine use of torture and intimidation by Indonesian soldiers and police went unchecked by civilian controls, while GAM also committed lesser abuses, such as beatings and extortion.

In frontline communities, such as the hamlets where Juayriah sells her scarves, the result is levels of trauma similar to those found in postwar Bosnia and Afghanistan, according to a recent study by the IOM, Harvard Medical School, and Aceh's Syiah Kuala University.

Of the 596 adults interviewed for the baseline study, 41 percent said a family member or friend had been killed during the conflict. Nearly 80 percent had lived through combat, such as firefights or bombings. One-third showed symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder.

IOM officials say tackling trauma, anxiety, and depression is crucial to any long-term reintegration plan for both ex-fighters and civilians. It plans to begin a pilot mental health project in one district in Aceh this month and hopes to offer more outreach services to affected communities.

"Reconstruction and rehabilitation in Aceh is predicated on having a healthy, functioning community. When we have the extraordinarily high baseline level of mental health issues, it's inevitably going to impact on this process," says Paul Dillon, a spokesman for IOM.

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