Security authorities in Aceh have closely monitored SIRA's

Security authorities in Aceh have closely monitored SIRA's activities following its support for a self-determination referendum in Aceh, instead of the independence that has long been fought for by the Free Aceh Movement (GAM).

SIRA, which was supported by Acehnese students and intellectuals, was involved in the 1999 mass gathering in Banda Aceh, attended by some two million Acehnese people.

The Aceh conflict, which has claimed more than 12,000 lives and displaced hundreds of thousands of others, broke out in 1976 when Acehnese people took up arms to protest what they regarded as injustice and human rights abuses encountered in their attempt to fight for the province's separation from Indonesia.