Jakarta – The Indonesian police chief has taken issue with a move by the country's spy chief to promise amnesty to a militant who turned himself in, saying he must still face justice for a number of murders and other crimes.

Hotli Simanjuntak, Banda Aceh – After three years on the run, 30 active members of the Din Minimi-led armed civilian group in Aceh have surrendered to the government after being promised an amnesty.

Jakarta – The city of Banda Aceh has issued a decree banning its predominantly Muslim residents from celebrating the New Year, an official said on Tuesday.

"It is forbidden for Muslims to celebrate Christmas and Christian New Year," Banda Aceh Deputy Mayor Zainal Arifin said, as quoted by Tempo.co.

Jakarta – Sharia police officers, locally known as Wilayatul Hisbah, raided a number of warnet (internet cafes) in North Aceh in the wee hours of Friday morning in an effort to prevent online gambling.

It was reported by kompas.com that officers raided warnet in Keude Lhoksukon of North Aceh after being tipped off that online gambling sites and porn sites had been accessed.

Aceh Singkil – When a mob of Muslims swooped on a little church deep in rural Aceh in Indonesia this month, the local police were nowhere to be seen, although they had received warnings of a possible attack.

Erika Anindita, Jakarta – The government was absent in the Aceh Singkil incident after it failed to accommodate the wave of protests that lead to an incident that claimed one life and caused thousands of people flee their homes after a church was burned down, experts said on Monday.

Jakarta – Rights group Amnesty International has called on Indonesian authorities to immediately repeal Aceh's Islamic Criminal Code, which came into effect on Friday, arguing that punishing people for having consensual sex is "despicable."

Hotli Simanjuntak, Banda Aceh – The Aceh administration is officially implementing the Qanun Jinayat (Islamic Criminal Code Bylaw) on Friday for Muslims and non-Muslims in the province, criminalizing drinking liquor, dating in public and homosexuality, among other things.

Authorities in the Indonesian region of Aceh must immediately repeal a controversial new bylaw which imposes harsh flogging sentences for consensual sex in some instances and could make it easier for rapists to escape justice, said Amnesty International today.

Kate Lamb, Jakarta – Indonesia is struggling to live up to its national motto "unity in diversity" after a mob attack on a church left one dead and the authorities responded by demolishing more churches.

The attack took place in the conservative province of Aceh, the only region in Indonesia that has sharia law and where religious tension has been brewing for months.

Aceh Singkil – The Aceh Singkil administration continued on Thursday to demolish 10 churches, which a group of Islamic youths had protested for not having building permits.

Human rights groups criticize the implementation of a tougher version of the Qanun Jinayat – Aceh's Islamic Criminal Bylaw, which takes effect Friday – and call on the central government to push for change.

Jakarta – The Aceh administration will start implementing a new, tougher Qanun Jinayat (Islamic criminal bylaw) on Friday, with wider scope and harsher punishments for violators, an official said on Thursday.

Jakarta – The National Police chief Gen. Badrodin Haiti said on Monday that he removed Adj. Sr. Cmr. Budi Samekto as Aceh Singkil police chief over his incompetence in managing the conflict, which claimed one life and sent thousands on exodus.

Aceh Singkil – Authorities in Aceh province on Monday began tearing down several small Christian churches after hard-line Muslims demanded their closure, citing a lack of building permits, and following religious violence.

Aceh Singkil – Hardline Muslims in Indonesia's conservative Aceh province on Sunday demanded the local government close 10 Christian churches, just days after a mob burnt down a church, leaving one person dead and several injured.

Thousands of vulnerable people – children, women and the elderly – are staying in shelters following the burning of a church that prompted thousands to flee their hometown of Aceh Singkil in Aceh province, an official of a church organization said on Saturday.

Fedina S. Sundaryani and Hotli Simanjuntak, Central Tapanuli, North Sumatra – Police have named 10 people suspects for their alleged role in burning a church in Aceh Singkil regency, Aceh, an incident that has triggered an exodus of thousands of residents leaving to take shelter in neighboring North Sumatra.

Jakarta – The National Police said on Tuesday that one person has died and others are injured after a brawl between two mobs over the burning of a church in a village in Aceh Singkil district in Aceh province.

Kate Walton, Guest Contributor – In the same month that 12 UN agencies called on all states to end violence and discrimination against LGBTI people, two young women have been arrested in Aceh, northwest Indonesia, on suspicion of being lesbians.

Jakarta – An international rights group has called on authorities in Aceh to immediately release unconditionally two women arrested on suspicion of being lesbians.

Banda Aceh – Islamic Shariah police in Indonesia's devout Aceh province say two suspected lesbians apprehended this past week in a tourist resort will undergo rehabilitation instead of being charged with a crime.

The arrest of two women in Aceh for everyday behavior is an outrageous abuse of police power that should be considered a threat to all Indonesians. – Graeme Reid, LGBT rights director

Banda Aceh – The Wilayatul Hisbah (Sharia Police) have apprehended two young women for allegedly being a lesbian couple after the two were seen sitting and hugging in a public space in the capital city of Aceh province.

Jakarta – An official in Aceh has been demoted for featuring a "vulgar" and "erotic" Indian dance performance during a cultural festival in the province's capital last week.

Hotli Simanjuntak, Banda Aceh – The former chairman of the Aceh Monitoring Mission (AMM) team, Pieter Feith, has said that Aceh administrations have not yet been able to take full advantage of the abundant budgets available to them following the peace deal 10 years ago, which has caused the reintegration process and economic development in the province to remain stagnant.

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – Fakhruddin Kasem hoped for a prosperous new life when Indonesia struck a deal to end a separatist conflict in Aceh, but a decade on the unemployed former rebel is so desperate he hopes to join the Islamic State group to make ends meet.

Indonesia is still failing tens of thousands affected by the devastating Aceh conflict, leaving family members and victims in the dark about the fate of loved ones and without justice, truth and full reparation Amnesty International said ahead of the 10-year anniversary of the conflict's end.

Khoiriyah Helanita, Jakarta – Deliberations on the bill on gender equality and justice have been stalled for quite some time and may not be endorsed by the House of Representatives anytime soon due to the strong opposition from many institutions, mostly religious ones.

Banda Aceh – Banda Aceh Mayor Illiza Sa'aduddin Djamal has defended her recent decision to impose a partial curfew for local women, saying that the policy would directly benefit female employees in Aceh's capital city.

Banda Aceh – The capital of Aceh province has imposed a partial curfew for women that it says will reduce sexual violence but which critics say is discriminatory, the Associated Press has reported.

Jakarta – Vice President Jusuf Kalla is asking the Banda Aceh municipal administration to review the imposition of a curfew on women in the city.

Muhammad Hamzah, North Aceh – Authorities in Indonesia's North Aceh district are set to impose a new bylaw segregating men and women in all public places, as part of the enforcement of shariah practiced in Aceh province.

Hotli Simanjuntak, Banda Aceh – Women activists in Aceh consider the latest sharia regulations banning unmarried men and women from riding together on motorcycles and separating female and male students in high schools in North Aceh to be unnecessary.

Reza Munawir, Banda Aceh – North Aceh district has passed legislation requiring schools to teach boys and girls separately and hopes to follow that up with a ban prohibiting the two sexes from riding motorcycles together.

Banda Aceh – A district in Indonesia's Aceh has passed legislation banning unmarried men and women from riding together on motorbikes, a lawmaker said Monday, the latest new Islamic regulation in the conservative province.

Jakarta – An unmarried couple have been caned by order of the Bener Meriah regency administration in Aceh after they were found guilty of making love.

Katharina Lestari & Abby Seiff, Banda Aceh – On a recent Friday, three stragglers sat sipping the dregs of their coffee as the city of Banda Aceh closed up around them. The gates of the cafe, like those of shops up and down the street, had been drawn and the streets were clearing of cars.

Banda Aceh – The sharia police in Aceh Besar regency, Aceh, conducted a public caning of six residents on Friday for cock-fight gambling.

"They were caught in Meunasah Krueng village in early January. They received the caning punishment after the Sharia Court found them guilty and decided to cane them in public," said Sharia Police chief Muhammad Rusli.

Ina Parlina, Jakarta – Internal rifts within the elites of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) that mark the ongoing transfer of power from the group's old guard to the next generation, may weaken the Aceh Party (PA), GAM's political wing and formal presence in the province, a recent report by the Jakarta-based Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict (IPAC) has said.

Hotli Simanjuntak, Banda Aceh – A senior high school in Sabang, Aceh, expelled an 11th grade student last month after she got married, saying it did not permit married students to study at the school.

Ati Nurbaiti, Jakarta – The smiling woman pictured in a black veil, Rosnida Sari, is the lecturer of gender studies at the center of the latest uproar in Banda Aceh.

Hotli Simanjuntak, Banda Aceh – Amid calls for the government to protect a lecturer at Ar-Raniry State Islamic University (UIN) who is under threat for efforts toward peace and tolerance, the university is asking her to apologize to the public.

Ridwan Max Sijabat and Hotli Simanjuntak, Jakarta/Banda Aceh – An alliance of NGOs and individuals has called on the government to protect a lecturer at Ar-Raniry State Islamic University in Banda Aceh, who has been intimidated and is under threat for her efforts to develop peace and tolerance.

Michael Bachelard, Banda Aceh – Last November, a young pregnant woman we'll call "Yasmeen"* was led onto a high platform in a city square in the Indonesian province of Aceh and prepared herself to be publicly flogged.

Ridwan Max Sijabat, Jakarta – An alliance of 34 NGOs and a group of individuals called on the government and security authorities to provide protection for a lecturer of Ar Raniry State Islamic University in Banda Aceh who has been intimidated and under threat for inviting her students to a church as part of her efforts to build peace in the country.

Hotli Simanjuntak, Banda Aceh – Hundreds of tourists have reportedly canceled trips to Weh Island in Sabang, Aceh, as the result of recent violence allegedly committed by locals against tourists celebrating the New Year.

A local regulation that banned the people of Aceh from celebrating the New Year in any way has been blamed for triggering the incident.

Gayatri Suroyo & Charlotte Greenfield, Banda Aceh – Overwhelmed by fear, members of the main gay rights group in Banda Aceh started burning piles of documents outside their headquarters in late October, worried that the sharia police would raid them at any moment.

Michael Bachelard, Banda Aceh – On a stone in the middle of a grassy field, a woman sits alone, remembering the boy she'll never see again.

Syarifa Fatimah Zuhra's eight-year-old son, Muhammad Reza Syahputra, died when the Boxing Day tsunami hit Aceh 10 years ago. His body was never found, so she comes to the children's section of the mass grave in Ulee Lheue to pray.

Hotli Simanjuntak and Hasyim Widhiarto, Banda Aceh – Exactly 10 years ago, modern history's biggest natural disaster struck the Indian Ocean and nowhere was the devastation and loss of life worse than in Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam.

More than 221,000 people were killed and missing while over 800,000 were displaced and at least 477,000 had to live in refugee camps.