Since his government last year brought about what looks like the end of the separatist conflict in Indonesia’s tsunami-wracked Aceh province, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has drawn effusive praise internationally.

So impressed was Robert Wexler, US Democratic congressman, that he last week nominated Mr Yudhoyono for the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize, calling the former Suharto-era general a “campaigner for peace”.