Indonesia's airforce has launched rocket attacks on separatists in Aceh today just hours after the president imposed martial law in the province.
President Megawati Sukarnoputri gave the go-ahead for war yesterday against the rebels after last-ditch peace talks in Tokyo collapsed, leaving a landmark peace pact welcomed by Aceh's four million people in tatters.
In a decree, Ms Megawati said the refusal of Free Aceh Movement (GAM) rebels to give up their 27-year fight for independence gave her no option but to use force.
The Tokyo talks were a last effort to rescue a December peace pact, but Jakarta's ultimatum to GAM to accept Indonesian sovereignty over Aceh, which is rich in oil and gas, was always going to be hard for the separatists to swallow.
GAM has said it is ready to resume one of Asia's longest-running separatist wars that has killed 10,000 people, adding that it would appeal for United Nations intervention.
Police have arrested five leading GAM peace negotiators who were staying at a hotel in Banda Aceh, 1,060 miles northwest of Jakarta.
The peace agreement has been beset by bickering and mistrust over the issue of independence, which GAM has long demanded but Indonesia refuses to give. The peace pact did not address this in detail, focusing more on trying to halt the fighting.