Josua Gantan, Jakarta – The order by authorities in Aceh to have a woman and her married lover caned for adultery, even after she had been gang-raped by vigilante enforcers of Shariah, has spurred a maelstrom of criticism and soul-searching about the place of Islamic jurisprudence in Muslim-majority but secular Indonesia.

Banda Aceh – The Network for Civil Society Concerned with Sharia (JMSPS) has called on the Langsa City administration to help heal the mental state of a woman who was recently gang raped at her house in Langsa, Aceh, instead of focusing on bringing her to justice for adultery.

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – Women's rights activists in Aceh have criticized local authorities in the town of Langsa for insisting on caning a woman there for having alleged extramarital sex, even after she was gang raped by a vigilante group purporting to crack down on vice.

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – Environmental activists in Aceh slammed the prosecution for seeking what they view as lenient punishment for the director of a palm oil company who is accused of damaging a natural habitat for orangutans.

Nurdin Hasan & Kennial Caroline Laia, Banda Aceh – A woman in Aceh who was gang raped last week after being accused of having extramarital sex now faces the indignity of a public caning for the offense of having an affair.

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – An activist has condemned the latest case of sexual violence in Aceh, which involved a group of men allegedly raiding the home of a woman they accused of being engaged in extramarital sex, and raping her.

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – Police in Aceh have arrested three people, including a 13-year-old boy, and are hunting five others for allegedly raping a woman they accused of having extramarital sex.

Michael Bachelard, Kuala Simpang, Aceh – On the map, the Leuser Ecosystem is shaped like a gigantic pair of lungs. The image is apt. This 2.6 million hectare expanse of tropical forest that spans Aceh and North Sumatra in Indonesia is one of the largest remaining oxygen factories in a country that's become infamous for slashing and burning its trees.

Hotli Simanjuntak, Banda Aceh – Female activists in Aceh, affiliated with the 231 Monitoring Network, have urged the government and police to investigate child abuse cases in the province.

Indecisiveness on the part of the government and law enforcers is deemed to have contributed to the rising incidence of sexual abuse cases, due to the lack of a deterrent effect.

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – Police in Aceh have named one of their own members a suspect in the alleged sexual abuse of at least two young girls, as clerics in the staunchly conservative province demand a stiff punishment for the alleged perpetrator.

Hotli Simanjuntak, Banda Aceh – The Aceh administration's approval of the Qanun Hukum Acara Jinayat (criminal code procedure) bylaw authorizes sharia police in the province to detain any person suspected of violating sharia for a maximum of 20 days, if initial counseling of the offender proves ineffective.

Hotli Simanjuntak, Banda Aceh – Although the legislative election in Aceh on Wednesday was regarded as a success due to a lack of serious security issues, it was still marred by violence, intimidation and vote-buying, activists say.

Jakarta – Indonesian Military (TNI) Commander Gen. Moeldoko on Friday offered an apology in light of the shooting of a Nasdem Party campaign post in North Aceh regency on Feb. 16, which involved the use of a TNI-issued weapon.

Index: ASA 21/010/2014

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – Three people, including a one-and-a-half-year-old infant, were killed in Aceh after unidentified gunmen fired on a car decked out with political banners, in what police believe may be another incidence of election-related violence in the province.

Hotli Simanjuntak, Banda Aceh – The sharia police in Banda Aceh, Aceh Nanggroe Darussalam, have rounded up 15 young women after they were "caught" in a late-night coffee shop.

They have been accused of not wearing appropriate Muslim clothing and for loitering outdoors after midnight, both deemed to violate the Islamic moral code.

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – Escalating political tension and rampant violence in Aceh in the run-up to next month's the legislative election have prompted activists to declare an emergency in the province.

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – Police charged 21 members and supporters of the Aceh Party over a string of violent attacks on rival political parties ahead of the April legislative election.

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – Two National Aceh Party (PNA) members were critically injured and a member of the Aceh Party (PA) was hospitalized for non-life-threatening injuries in related incidents on Friday.

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – The Indonesian Military (TNI) said on Wednesday it was investigating allegations that several soldiers had rented their guns to the perpetrators of an attack on a National Democratic (NasDem) Party campaign office in the district of North Aceh last month.

Farouk Arnaz, Jakarta – One of the participants in an attack on a National Democrat Party (NasDem) campaign office in Munyee Kunyet village, North Aceh in February was a former Free Aceh Movement (GAM) combatant, police said on Tuesday.

Banda Aceh – Two unidentified men threw a grenade at the Aceh Party office in Lueng Bata district, Banda Aceh, on Tuesday night, injuring a 9-year-old boy and damaging the office's door and shattering window panes.

"We are working on identifying the perpetrators and motive behind the grenade-throwing," Banda Aceh Police chief Sr. Comr. Moffan MK said at the scene.

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – Poor law enforcement and a failed political transformation by former militants involved in the separatist Free Aceh Movement (GAM) are responsible for several incidents of political violence that occurred in the province ahead of next month's legislative elections, an activist says.

Kennial Caroline Laia, Jakarta – A recent string of attacks against legislative candidates and political parties' headquarters in Aceh may be a form of dissatisfaction toward efforts to introduce a national idealism into the province which only a few years ago was waging an armed struggle for separation from Indonesia, an analyst says.

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – An Aceh National Party (PNA) legislative candidate was shot and killed late Sunday night in a hail of bullets – the latest attack on the political party ahead of April's general elections.

Yuliasri Perdani, Jakarta – The recent shooting of a National Democrat (NasDem) Party campaign post in Aceh was politically motivated, party members said.

Isabelle Arradon – It is always difficult to say when an armed conflict is truly "over".

Hotli Simanjuntak, Banda Aceh – Imposing sharia on non-Muslims is inappropriate as Islamic law only regulates matters relevant to Islam and to do so tarnishes the image of the faith and thus harms it, says an Acehnese cleric.

Hotli Simanjuntak and Ina Parlina, Banda Aceh/Jakarta – Without much fanfare, the Aceh provincial administration and legislative council have approved the Qanun Jinayat (behavior-governing bylaw) that obliges every Muslim and non-Muslim in Aceh to follow sharia, the Islamic legal code.

Camelia Pasandaran, Jakarta – Human rights activists criticized the Aceh Shariah police on Friday for an official suggestion that non-Muslim women should wear the hijab in the semi-autonomous western region.

Banda Aceh Shariah Police on Wednesday detained 62 men and women for wearing improper clothes, releasing them the same day. Two were non-Muslims.

Hotli Simanjuntak, Banda Aceh – The Aceh Legislative Council is deliberating a special bylaw that will force non-Muslims in the province to follow sharia.

Locally called Qanun Jinayat (a bylaw governing behavior), the measure would require all residents to follow Islamic code of dress and conduct.

Kate Lamb, Banda Aceh – At first glance the oddity of a lone palm tree on the shoreline, or a piece of graffiti with the words "hantu laut", meaning ghosts of the sea – also the words spray-painted on the military trucks that collected the dead bodies – could easily be missed by a new visitor to Banda Aceh, the Indonesian city ravaged by the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami.

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – A rights group on Sunday reported a significant drop in the number of abuse-of-power cases in 2013 involving religious police officers enforcing shariah-inspired bylaws in Aceh.

Amnesty International has praised the Aceh parliament for passing a bylaw in December to establish a truth and reconciliation commission to investigate the abuses that took place during 30 years of conflict between Acehnese rebels and the Indonesian military, but emphasized that more needed to be done before the process could begin in earnest.

Index: ASA 21/001/2014

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – Enforcement of the law and human rights remained shaky throughout 2013 in Aceh, a legal advocacy group says.

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – In defiance of a ban placed on New Year's Eve festivities, thousands of residents of Banda Aceh gathered downtown to celebrate the occasion with fireworks and revelry.

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – Shariah police in Aceh have confiscated thousands of fireworks, firecrackers and trumpets in the provincial capital as they enforce local ulemas' call for a ban on New Year's Eve festivities.

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – Nearly half of infant deaths in Aceh were caused by poor nutrition, an official said on Saturday.

"More than 45 percent of babies who died in Aceh did so because they did not get sufficient nutrition," Sulasmi, section head of the Aceh Health Office's mother, children and nutrition divison said.

Andreas Harsono – Here's a seasonal snapshot from Indonesia's Aceh province: on 20 December, dozens of militant Islamists rallied outside one of the largest hotels in Banda Aceh, the provincial capital, threatening violence if the hotel management attempted to organise Christmas or New Year's Eve celebrations.

Hotli Simanjuntak, Banda Aceh – For almost the last eight years, Mairia, 33, has been living with her four children in a 3-by-4 meter room since the Indian Ocean tsunami swept her house away on Dec. 26, 2004.

Hotli Simanjuntak, Banda Aceh – The Banda Aceh Ulema Consultative Assembly (MPU) has once again prohibited Muslims in the city from extending Christmas wishes and celebrating New Year's Eve.

The ban, written in an edict, or fatwa, was conveyed by the MPU as it deemed wishing those celebrating Christmas and celebrating New Year's Eve to be against Islamic teachings.

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – Muslim residents of the capital of Aceh province may have to roll back their New Year's festivities this year.

Nurdin Hasan & SP/Muhammad Hamzah, Banda Aceh – Aceh installed on Monday a former separatist leader as the autonomous province's Wali Nanggroe – a "guardian of the state" who will oversee a bureaucracy tasked with safeguarding Acehnese culture and values.

An ongoing dispute over Aceh's star and crescent flag came to a head on Monday as thousands of local residents surrounded an Indonesian Military (TNI) compound after soldiers confiscated dozens of the flags during an inaugural celebration for the autonomous region's newly elected Wali Nanggroe, or guardian of the state.

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – Scores of young people vandalized a shariah police office and injured a religious police officer in the early hours of Tuesday morning after the Islamic authority broke up a gathering in Langsa, a religious official said.

Dessy Sagita – Rights activists are demanding the central government re-evaluate the implementation of shariah law in Aceh following a string of violations committed by the province's moral guardians, the Shariah Police.

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – Detectives with the Banda Aceh Police have arrested and detained the head of the province's shariah police on suspicion of embezzlement, an officer said on Friday.

Index: ASA 21/0332013

Aceh/Jijiem – Joining a rebellion is not a typical career move. Yet up to 26,000 people in Indonesia spent years working for a separatist rebellion that lasted nearly 30 years in Aceh. Children followed their parents into battlefields and war rooms. Sons went abroad for training. Upon leaving the force, a number received payment.