This is why the authorities in Jakarta are so worried about separatism in Aceh.
Five months ago, many found it hard to imagine the village of Peuken Bada, in Aceh Province, recovering.
An under-employed American envoy to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni, has been taking an interest in Aceh.
Around 10, 000 people are thought to have died in Aceh's conflict since GAM was founded in the 1970s.
The situation in Aceh, on the northern tip of Sumatra, is equally troubling.
Ms Sadler, from Iowa, was in Aceh to treat the sick and injured in refugee camps, according to her daughter.
In Aceh province, where a peace deal with separatists authorized the introduction of Shariah, or Islamic law, "morality patrols" with the help of local police routinely arrest unmarried couples found alone together.
Eleven conventional banks with operations in Aceh province are studying the conversion of their branches in the northern Sumatra territory, says Mulya Siregar, a senior analyst at the central bank's newly established Sharia division.
Decades-old demands for the Islamic legal code to be strictly applied in Aceh have also been ignored, partly because the idea worries many other Indonesians, the majority of whom are Muslim but not pious.
The government has clearly learnt some lessons from the much larger earthquake off the coast of north Sumatra in December 2004, which triggered a huge tsunami and killed more than 150, 000 people in Aceh province and another 60, 000 in a dozen countries around the Indian Ocean.
Asked the simplest of questions, the deputy editor of the weekly newspaper Kontras in Banda Aceh frowns in concentration.
In North Aceh, polling took place as originally scheduled in only seven out of 26 districts, and just 2% of eligible voters showed up.
"The earthquake today was different from that in 2004 off Aceh and in Japan" last year, and less likely to create massive water displacement, she said.
In another note, sent to a local newspaper, the women insisted they were in south Aceh for a holiday.
In less than 12 hours the Tsunami had finally reached the coast of Africa from its point of origin in Banda Aceh.
Aceh in Sumatra was the first area to convert to Islam, in medieval times.
Kuntoro Mangkusubroto, the boss of Indonesia's new REDD agency, was previously in charge of rebuilding Aceh after the tsunami.
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The earthquake measured 8.6 on the Richter scale, occurred 434km south-west of Banda Aceh Province in Sumatra at 08.38 UTC.
The province of Aceh, in particular, has a powerful independence movement.
With the exception of the continuing conflict in the province of Aceh, Indonesia is now more internally peaceful than seemed imaginable when she took over.
Nevertheless, donors at a meeting in Tokyo have agreed in principle to help Aceh if the peace process works, probably to the tune of at least several million dollars.
The director of the International Peace Research Institute in Oslo, Stein Toennesson, said he was happy on behalf of Mr Yunus, but argued that it was unfortunate the prize this year had not gone to the people behind the peace deal in Indonesia's Aceh province.
Many Islamic teachers in the rural parts of Aceh, and their students, are inclined to trust this scholarly Muslim.
In Jakarta, Mr Surayud said the peace process under way in Indonesia's breakaway Aceh province would serve as a model.
In recent days the DRN has coordinated the arrival and distribution of aid supplies at airports in Sri Lanka and Bandar Aceh.
They are banking on a big enough change at the centre that they can talk not only the East Timorese around, but also separatist groups in other provinces, such as Aceh and Irian Jaya.
In fact, until annexed by the Dutch in 1874, the sultanate of Aceh was a distinct and powerful state which at times controlled a large slice of Sumatra and channelled much of South East Asia's trade through its ports.
In one of the worst hit regions, Indonesia's Banda Aceh still bears scars from the wave -- you see it in the twisted metal, in the gutted buildings and the naked foundations where homes once stood.
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