Nurdin Hasan – Three people died and five were injured during a shooting in Lhokseumawe, Aceh on Sunday.

Hotli Simanjuntak, Banda Aceh – Political tensions in Aceh have begun to rise again with a grenade blast on Jl. Daud Beureueh, Lampriet, Banda Aceh, at around 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, which slightly injured three civilians.

Nani Afrida, Jakarta – An Acehnese civil society group says it has reported Aceh Governor Irwandi Yusuf to the National Police for issuing a business licence to a company to convert 1,605 hectares in Tripa Swamp, Aceh, into a palm oil plantation.

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – A leading environmental group is suing Aceh Governor Irwandi Yusuf for allegedly approving a permit for an palm oil plantation inside a protected peat forest.

p>Jakarta – A General Elections Commission (KPU) member said that the upcoming gubernatorial election in Aceh had been prepared under the existing regulations.

"We will proceed with the electoral registration phases. There is no legal basis to suspend it," KPU member Endang Sulastri said on Wednesday in an electoral dispute trial at the Constitutional Court.

Banda Aceh – A brother and sister who had a child together have been banished from their Aceh village, despite officials struggling to find an offense to charge them with under the province's Shariah legal code.

Nurdin Hassan – An incestuous relationship between a brother and sister in sternly religious Aceh is the newest unconventional relationship to test the limits of the province's Shariah law, which fails to consider the possibility, authorities there said.

Hotli Simanjuntak, Banda Aceh – A number of Friday prayer congregation members forcefully ended a sermon being delivered by a khatib (preacher) and dragged him down from the podium because "they were irritated by the sermon's content".

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – Police have named three suspects, including a local councilor, in Friday's attack on a Muslim preacher and have detained two of them, an officer said on Sunday.

Seven couples, including three Indonesian soldiers, were arrested for illegally being in close proximity to unmarried members of the opposite sex during raids in Banda Aceh, Aceh, early on Friday morning, a top official said.

An imam preaching against violence in Aceh was attacked and beaten as he delivered his sermon during Friday prayers, a report said.

Saiful Bahri was speaking out against election violence allegedly committed by local politicians and former members of the disbanded Free Aceh Movement (GAM) in Pidie, AcehKita reported.

Nurdin Hassan – Authorities in Aceh released a married lesbian couple from detention after the lovers agreed not to see each other again.

Nurdin Hassan, Banda Aceh – Security authorities in the deeply religious Indonesian province of Aceh have been forced to admit that they are clueless about how to handle a case involving the marriage of two lesbians, saying same-sex marriages are not dealt with under local Islamic laws.

Jakarta – Six years after the Helsinki peace deal ended the long insurgency of the Aceh Freedom Movement (GAM), activists now say the government has avoided bringing to justice past human rights violations that occurred in the province during the civil war.

Jakarta – Cases of human rights violations during the conflict in Indonesia's northern-most province of Aceh must be investigated and resolved in accordance with the Helsinki peace agreement and the Law on Aceh Governance (UU PA). This is extremely important in order to provide justice to the victims and to ensure future peach in Aceh.

Jakarta – The Indonesian government has yet to fulfill its commitment to realize the Helsinki Agreement in Aceh, a rights group says.

"We urge the government to realize the agreement by setting up a human rights court to try past human rights abuses in the province," Impasial executive director Poengky Indarti said in a press statement.

Hotli Simanjuntak, Banda Aceh – Sharia police in Aceh Besar, Aceh province, on Wednesday, arrested three men buying food in a restaurant during the fasting day.

"We have been watching the restaurant for several days to verify reports from the public," said Darul Imarah district chief, Azhari Awai.

Meulaboh, Aceh – Public Order Agency officers in West Aceh, Aceh, arrested three Muslims for failing to fast on Sunday.

Jhon Aswir, a spokesman for the agency, also known as Satpol-PP, said KN, ML and HD were arrested as they had lunch in a restaurant.

"We had to arrest them because they do not respect other Muslims who are fasting," Jhon said.

Violence in Aceh is becoming political, according to a human rights NGO.

"We are facing violence in relation to local political issues such as the regional elections and harsh competition between political parties," Harris Azhar, coordinator of the Missing Persons and Violence Victims Commission (Kontras), told a press conference on Sunday as quoted by kompas.com.

Hotli Simanjuntak, Banda Aceh – A former combatant of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) was gunned down in a drive-by shooting in front of his coffee kiosk in Bireun, Aceh, on Friday evening.

Ridwan Max Sijabat, Jakarta – Political tensions were expected to calm gradually in the once-restive Aceh after parties agreed to accept nominations of independent candidates on the condition that the gubernatorial election would be rescheduled.

Index: ASA 21/021/2011

Amnesty International welcomed the decision by a US Court of Appeals that US-based Exxon Mobil can face claims relating to extrajudicial killings, torture, and prolonged arbitrary detention by Indonesian soldiers in Indonesia's Aceh province under the US Alien Tort Statute (ATS).

Stephen Schaber – Aceh will hold its second post-conflict election in November and, according to the International Crisis Group, it will be bitterly contested by two former Free Aceh Movement (GAM) allies.

Jakarta/Brussels – Five years after the first post-conflict elections in Aceh brought former guerrillas of the Free Aceh Movement (Gerakan Aceh Merdeka, GAM) to power, local elections scheduled for November 2011 are turning into a bitter intra-GAM battle.

Over 100 demonstrators protesting the issuance of mining permits vandalized the gate of the Aceh governor's office on Monday after they were banned from staging a rally inside the building's compound.

The protestors, mostly members of environmental organizations, rallied to urge the governor to revoke 120 mining permits and to close mining areas in the province.

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – Aceh has decided to hold its provincial, district and mayoral elections on Nov. 14, but the absence of supervisory bodies at each level is raising concerns of possible campaign and polling irregularities.

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – Eighteen men and one woman were caned in the eastern Aceh town of Langsa on Thursday, less than a week after Amnesty International called for an end to the practice.

The caning took place in the town's Merdeka Park and was watched by more than a thousand onlookers.

An Indonesian human rights group on Friday condemned the use of caning in staunchly Islamic Aceh province, saying the punishment violated the country's constitution.

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – M. is a member of the Wilayatul Hisbah, Aceh's Shariah Police, and he is proud of it. But the athletically built 33-year-old is no ordinary officer.

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – City officials said on Thursday that they would stick to their threat to name and shame members of a banned sect who had not yet repented before the deadline of Wednesday.

Jakarta – Amnesty International urged Indonesia to repeal laws in Aceh that allow the use of caning as a punishment as it violates international human rights law, just after Indonesia was re-elected into the UN Human Rights Council.

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – Acehnese clerics have criticized Amnesty International's call for the Indonesian government to repeal a bylaw that allowed caning, arguing that the practice did not violate any regulation in the world.

The Indonesian government must end the use of caning as a form of punishment and repeal the laws that allow it in Aceh province, Amnesty International said today after at least 21 people were publicly caned since 12 May.

Nurdin Hasan – Fourteen people convicted of violating Aceh's strict Islamic code on gambling were publicly caned in Langsa, East Aceh, a prosecutor said on Friday.

Irvon, who heads the general crimes division at the Langsa Prosecutors Office, said each of the 14 offenders received six lashes within the grounds of the Darul Falah Mosque on Thursday.

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – Organizers of a beauty pageant in Aceh defied opposition from a conservative Islamic group by staging the event on Friday evening.

Organizing committee member Poppy Amalia said claims that the Miss Aceh Fair 2011 pageant went against Islamic values were nonsense.

Islamic students organization Rabithah Thaliban Aceh (RTA) has opposed plans to hold a Miss Aceh pageant as part of the 2011 Aceh Fair at Blang Padang in Banda Aceh.

According to the fair's official Web site, the 2011 Aceh Fair will be held from May 8 to 15, with the Miss Aceh pageant held on Friday.

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – The Aceh Jaya district administration has banned four nongovernmental organizations from conducting relief work after the groups were accused of carrying out missionary and conversion activities.

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh - Officials have lambasted an Australian carbon broker for selling the marketing rights for carbon credits created through a forest conservation project to a Canadian mining firm.

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – Over a hundred members of the recently banned Millata Abraham Muslim sect on Friday underwent a mass conversion to mainstream faith at the Baiturrahman Raya Mosque in Banda Aceh.

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – Human rights activists on Tuesday criticized Aceh's provincial administration for failing to prevent vigilantes from punishing alleged violators of Shariah law in a variety of ways – from sexually harassing people to beating them up.

Nurdin Hasan, Aceh Besar – Two couples in staunchly Muslim Aceh were caned in public on Friday for separate acts of indecency.

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – Unknown assailants threw a live grenade at the home of an Aceh Party leader early Friday, sparking fears about the resurgence of politically motivated terrorism in the province.

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – Thousands of Muslim teachers and students on Thursday thronged the streets of Banda Aceh, demanding that the governor clamp down on "deviant" religious sects.

The protesters, waving placards bearing condemnations of groups that "deviated from the true teachings of Islam," marched toward Aceh Governor Irwandi Yusuf's office.

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – An activist in Aceh has attacked the provincial administration for endorsing a mining plan that he insists will severely damage the environment and cause more conflict.

Heavy flooding in eight subdistricts of West Aceh has forced the evacuation of thousands of people, an official said.

"Volunteers are still evacuating the flood victims. The flooding was triggered by heavy rain, which started last week, causing rivers in West Aceh to overflow," said Ahmad Dadek from the local Disaster Management Office (BPBD).

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – Decades of armed conflict in Aceh may be officially over, but scars remain from that tumultuous time that, as people like Reza Idri insist, should never be forgotten.

Reza, the director of the newly inaugurated Museum of Aceh Human Rights, believes the past holds valuable lessons no matter how painful they are.

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – A squad of Aceh's "fashion police" was berated and attacked on Wednesday by a group of men angry over the officers' attempt to escort what they deemed to be an immodestly-dressed woman to their offices for counseling.

Jakarta – Women should have greater opportunities in decision-making processes to ensure the effectiveness of policy programs designed to help the poor – especially women and children – activists say.

Hotli Simanjuntak, Pidie, Aceh – Uncontrolled illegal logging has been blamed for a flash flood in Tangse district, Pidie regency, Aceh, on Thursday evening. The flood waters killed at least 12 people and displaced hundreds of families.

Nurdin Hasan & Antara, Pidie, Aceh – At least 11 people were killed and more than 100 homes destroyed in a flash flood that struck Pidie district in Aceh on Thursday night.

The flood, caused by heavy rains that forced rivers to burst their banks, sent residents of eight villages in Tangse subdistrict fleeing for higher ground.