Radzie, Banda Aceh – The earthquake and tsunami at the end of 2004 and the signing of the peace agreement between the Indonesian government and the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) in August 2005 has resulted in a drastic decline in the number of human rights violations in Aceh.

Radzie, Banda Aceh – The earthquake and tsunami at the end of 2004 and the signing of the peace agreement between the Indonesian government and the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) in August 2005 has resulted in a drastic decline in the number of human rights violations in Aceh.

Jakarta – The spokesman of ther Free Aceh Movement (GAM) in Aceh Irwandi Yusuf confirmed that GAM high-ranking officials, Hasan Tiro and Malik Mahmud, would not visit Aceh in the near future.

Jakarta – An EU-led team monitoring a peace deal in tsunami-ravaged Aceh province will extend its mission by at least three more months to oversee crucial elections, Indonesia's vice president said Friday.

Before the tsunami, Banda Aceh was a ghost town at night except for patrols of feared paramilitary police. In the mornings, corpses scarred by torture would turn up in the paddy fields down the coast where the brutal guerilla war between GAM (Free Aceh Movement) insurgents and security forces was fought in the jungle.

John Aglionby, Jakarta – Indonesia is today scheduled to complete the withdrawal of its 21,000 non-local soldiers from Aceh as part of a peace agreement to end a 29-year separatist insurgency in the tsunami-ravaged province.

A'an Suryana and Nani Afrida, Banda Aceh – The Free Aceh Movement (GAM) announced the dissolution of its military wing here on Tuesday in another move to achieve long-lasting peace in the tsunami-ravaged province.

A'an Suryana and Nani Afrida, Banda Aceh – Ignoring mounting criticism, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has approved a plan for the Indonesian Military to deploy troops to help speed up post-tsunami recovery programs in Aceh.

Nani Afrida, special to The Seattle Times – It has been one year since the tsunami devastated Aceh. What Aceh looked and felt like when the tsunami struck, and the panic of the people around me are still fresh in my mind.

Banda Aceh – Indonesia's Aceh rebels formally disbanded their armed wing on Tuesday in a major step toward ending one of Asia's longest separatist conflicts.

Peace efforts gained momentum after Aceh province was devastated by the massive earthquake and tsunami on Dec. 26, 2004, killing more than 131,000 people in the province and leaving half a million others homeless.

Banda Aceh – President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono denied earlier reports saying he planned to send more than 15,000 troops to Aceh, saying the soldiers would number less than 1,000 and would be used for reconstruction efforts, not combat.

Banda Aceh – General Endriartono Sutarto, Commander of the Indonesian Military (TNI), has said that the TNI operational command based in Lhokseumawe would be closed down following the withdrawal of non-organic TNI troops in Aceh.

A'an Suryana and Nani Afrida, Banda Aceh – Tearful mourners gathered here on Monday to offer prayers and lay flowers on the first anniversary of the Indian Ocean tsunami, one of the world's deadliest natural disasters.

A'an Suryana, Banda Aceh – Despite mounting criticism, the Aceh-Nias Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Agency (BRR) is pressing ahead with its plan to request the Indonesian Military (TNI) to deploy troops to help the body rebuild Aceh.

Hera Diani, Jakarta – People in Aceh and Nias have expressed little satisfaction in the progress of reconstruction and rehabilitation work in tsunami-hit areas, despite the government's claim that the pace of rebuilding is picking up, according to a survey.

Mark Forbes, Jakarta – Indonesia's military has announced plans to deploy more than 10,000 troops in Aceh to speed tsunami reconstruction, a move that threatens the province's brittle peace.

A'an Suryana, Banda Aceh – A year after the tsunami, signs of recovery are evident among Acehnese children, but many challenges remain, a UN body has said.

A'an Suryana and Tiarma Siboro, Banda Aceh/Jakarta – The government has drawn strong criticism for its plan to deploy 15 battalions, or about 15,000 soldiers, to help speed up reconstruction in Aceh.

Banda Aceh – Bustari Mansyur shrugs wearily when asked how many bodies his workers retrieved from the mangled wreckage of last December's tsunami. The question seems irrelevant.

Sian Powell, Banda Aceh – Tensions between fundamentalist Muslims and Western aid workers have begun to erupt in Aceh as the tsunami-devastated Indonesian province slowly recovers.

Banda Aceh – Some parents in tsunami-ravaged Aceh province are still clinging to hopes for a miracle, placing photos of smiling children in newspapers on the chance they might still be alive.

Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta – The Indonesian Military (TNI) is preparing to deploy 15 battalions of troops to speed up reconstruction efforts in tsunami-hit Aceh.

A'an Suryana, Banda Aceh – One year after the Indian Ocean tsunami, children in Indonesia are recovering at a slower pace compared to children in other countries affected by the destructive waves, a survey has found.

Jakarta – The Indonesian Forum for Environment (Walhi) urged the government on Wednesday to immediately cancel forest concession rights that have been given to logging companies operating in Southeast Aceh and Aceh Singkli, saying that it would only worsen the deforestation problem in the tsunami-devastated province.

Banda Aceh – Former Aceh rebels watched on Wednesday as international peace monitors fed a final batch of their weapons into a circular saw, a symbolic end to the nearly three-decade of civil war in the province.

A'an Suryana, Banda Aceh – "I'm tired. I have been writing a lot about reconstruction and rehabilitation efforts in Aceh but the progress here has been slow. Many people are still living in tents and barracks, despite the sheer amount of funds injected by the world," an Acehnese journalist has complained.

Jakarta – The decommissioning and dispersal of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) military wing is inadequate for the Indonesian Military (TNI). TNI chief Gen. Endriartono Sutarto has requested GAM to make an official statement regarding its dissolution.

Thousands of Indonesian troops have begun withdrawing from Aceh province in the last phase of a peace plan agreed with the rebels. The pullout was finalised after the Free Aceh Movement surrendered their final batch of weapons, fulfilling the terms of the pact reached in August.

Presenter/Interviewer: Marion Macgregor

Marcus Tanner, Banda Aceh – There can't be many guerrilla leaders with escape stories like Yusuf Irwandi's. One of several hundred separatist fighters in the province of Aceh jailed by the Indonesian military, his nine-year sentence came to an abrupt end at 8am on 26 December last year, when the tsunami washed away his prison.

Banda Aceh – Indonesia withdrew 1,600 troops from Aceh province as part of a pact aimed at ending a separatist conflict in the province devastated by last year's tsunami. The troops were among the last due to leave Aceh during the final phase of military withdrawals called for under an August peace pact signed with the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) in Helsinki.

Muninggar Sri Saraswati and Nani Afrida, Jakarta – The government is expected to extend the presence of international peace monitors in Aceh, previously scheduled to finish their job in March, for another three months in a bid to help ensure a lasting peace in the province.

Banda Aceh – Former rebels in Indonesia's Aceh today surrendered enough weapons in a final disarmament process to meet the total required under a historic peace pact with the Government, a foreign monitor said.

A. Junaidi – Acehnese writer Riati M.K. has launched on Wednesday her first novel, Seulanga Gelora Cinta di Tengah Perjuangan Aceh (Seulanga: Glory of love amid Aceh's struggle), which tells a tale of a woman named Seulanga as she searches for her parents' murderers during the armed conflict in Aceh.

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, Jakarta – The head of the Aceh and Nias Reconstruction Agency (BRR) praised on Friday the role of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) in the work being done to rebuild the tsunami-hit province.

Kuntoro Mangkusubroto said the GAM representative on the BRR, Tengku Kamaruzzaman, played a major role in helping the agency carry out its work.

Banda Aceh – The commander of the Iskandar Muda Territorial Command, Major General Supiadin AS, says that there are no grounds to extend the presence of the Aceh Monitoring Mission (AMM) in Aceh that is planned to end in March 2006.

Hera Diani, Jakarta – Despite a slow start, progress has been made in tsunami-ravaged Aceh, with the pace of reconstruction picking up. The 65,000 people still living in tents should be residing in decent housing by the end of 2006, officials said on Thursday.

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, Jakarta – Vice President Jusuf Kalla said on Thursday that the current peace-building process in Aceh was on the right track, giving optimism for a lasting peace in the resource-rich province, which for three decades had been wracked by bloody armed conflict.

Jakarta – The head of reconstruction in Indonesia's tsunami-devastated Aceh province defended the pace of home rebuilding for survivors on Thursday, saying it was exceeding the country's national capacity.

Jakarta – It is expected that the provisions on resolving human rights violations in Aceh will again attract sharp debate in dissuasions on the Draft Law on the Organisation of a Government for Aceh.

Andrew Steele, Jakarta – The wagons are already circling. In just over one month, swarms of journalists and humanitarian icons spanning from U2's Bono to former US President Bill Clinton will descend on Aceh to take stock of the recovery and reconstruction efforts that have occurred in the wake of last December's tsunami.

Jakarta – The efforts to create lasting peace in tsunami-devastated Aceh have been more successful than expected thus far, but the process has now entered a critical stage, a report says.

Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta – The demands for Aceh's partition should not be a priority for immediate discussion so as to avoid shifting the focus of attention from the reconstruction work in the tsunami-ravaged province, lawmakers have said.

Tiarma Siboro and Muninggar Sri Saraswati, Jakarta – If responded to by the government, the demands for Aceh's partition into three provinces could undermine the peace accord it signed with the Free Aceh Movement (GAM), GAM leaders and Acehnese scholars warned on Thursday.

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, Jakarta – The government and lawmakers are listening to demands for the partition of Aceh into three provinces, even though it may infringe on the peace agreement that has put an end to three decades of armed conflict there.

Banda Aceh – The Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Board (BRR) of Aceh and Nias has received 206 complaints from the public, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and the government up until the end of November.

Shawn Donnan, Jakarta – Saturday nights in Banda Aceh for years meant ducking off the streets to avoid curfews, enforced by soldiers and paramilitary police in armoured personnel carriers or trucks wrapped in crude armour plating and bearing sinister insignia.

"No one went out after dark," says Taufik Iskandar, a maths lecturer at the city's Syah Kuala University.

Shoeb Kagda, Jakarta – Nearly one year after 15-metre-high waves smashed into the Aceh coast, the Indonesian province worst hit by the Dec 26 tsunami is slowly but surely regaining its poise.

Nani Afrida, Banda Aceh – The Free Aceh Movement (GAM) marked its 29th anniversary quietly on Sunday by holding prayers at mosques across Aceh province.

"We're just expressing our gratitude that peace is being upheld in Aceh," the GAM commander in Aceh Besar regency, Muharram, told The Jakarta Post.

Banda Aceh – Sympathizers of former rebels in Aceh commemorate the movement's anniversary across the tsunami-ravaged province in a modest way on Sunday, following the rebels' decision to abort the ceremony.

Tim Hume – Teenage tsunami survivors in Indonesia's stricken Aceh province are turning to marijuana to escape the trauma and despair.

"Marijuana use has become much more prevalent since the tsunami," says David Gordon, director of Yakita, Indonesia's largest drug rehabilitation agency. "Kids are starting to use ganja from a younger age and on a more regular basis."