The equivalent of about 10,000 football fields of forest have been lost each year for the past five years in Aceh's Leuser ecosystem due to illegal logging and the clearing of land for palm plantations and new roads.

Camelia Pasandaran – Fourteen civil society groups on Thursday condemned Aceh's stoning bylaw, the Qanun Jinayat code, saying that most Acehnese were not in favor of it but that critics were being silenced by heavy-handed religious police.

Ref: TG ASA 21/2009/44. AI Index: ASA 21/021/2009

Gamawan Fauzi
Home Affairs Minister
Jl. Medan Merdeka Utara No. 7.
Jakarta Pusat
Indonesia

4 November 2009

Dear Minister,

RE: The Islamic Criminal Code in Aceh

Bachtiar Effendy, Jakarta – It seems almost natural that the Aceh legislature has passed a bill on adultery based on Islamic sharia – which derives from the Koran and Sunnah (traditions of Prophet Muhammad). According to the Koran, adultery is punishable by 100 strokes of the cane. A married person committing adultery has to be stoned to death.

Banda Aceh – Officials say a German working for the Red Cross has been shot by men on a motorcycle in Indonesia's Aceh province.

Police say Erhard Bauer, 50, was shot Thursday in the arm and stomach. The motive is unknown. Red Cross spokeswoman Svenja Koch says Bauer was flown to Singapore for treatment. She could not say if the injuries were life threatening.

Hotli Simanjuntak, Banda Aceh – The sharia regulation prohibiting women from wearing pants in West Aceh regency drew strong condemnation from public circles in Aceh province.

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – The local bylaw calling for adulterers to be stoned to death cannot be implemented because lawmakers who passed the regulation did not act with the blessings of the governor, the acting chair of the Aceh Provincial Legislature said on Friday.

Nurdin Hasan, Candra Malik & Antara, Banda Aceh – Human rights activists protested on Thursday over a district-wide ban on women wearing tight pants scheduled to take effect in West Aceh in January, saying it was a violation of women's rights.

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – Wild animal attacks in Aceh, particularly by elephants and Sumatran tigers, are highlighting the worsening conflict between wildlife and humans owing to the increasing destruction of natural habitat caused by illegal logging.

Jakarta – Muslim women would be banned from wearing tight pants in a devoutly Islamic district of Indonesia's Aceh province under proposed regulations to take effect Jan. 1, an official said Wednesday.

Hotli Simanjuntak and Jon Afrizal, Banda Aceh, Jambi – Deforestation in Aceh has continued to worsen despite the signing of a logging moratorium that prohibits anyone from felling forest trees, a non-governmental organization said.

Hotli Simanjuntak, Banda Aceh – The newly inaugurated members of the Aceh Legislative Council are set to revise the sharia bylaw passed by former legislators that stipulate, among others, stoning to death for adulterers.

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – Responding to a public outcry over the bylaw that mandates stoning to death for adulterers, Aceh Legislative Council members have agreed to review the Islamic criminal code endorsed by previous councilors in September, a provincial lawmaker said on Tuesday.

Jakarta – NGOs will request a judicial review of the newly endorsed bylaw in Aceh that condemns adulterers to be stoned to death.

Hotli Simanjuntak, Banda Aceh – Hundreds of relatives of Acehnese people who went missing during the conflict, which lasted from 1976 to 2005, have strongly urged the provincial government to establish a special court to settle unresolved human rights abuses and provide them with compensation.

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – The aging former leader of the disbanded Free Aceh Movement is expected to arrive in the province on Saturday for the second time since he fled the country in 1977.

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – The Aceh government said on Friday that it would not let recently crowned Putri Indonesia Qori Sandioriva represent the province as she had failed to comply with the conditions set for her to be allowed to enter the competition.

A new law mandating death by stoning for adulterers in Indonesia's deeply Islamic Aceh province advocates "torture" and should be overturned, US-based group Human Rights Watch said Monday.

"Stoning and flogging constitute torture in any circumstances," Human Rights Watch Asia head Elaine Pearson said in a statement.

Nurdin Hassan, Banda Aceh – In the latest religious dispute out of Aceh, a prominent group of Islamic clerics has denounced newly crowned Putri Indonesia Qori Sandioriva for "bringing shame" to the province by abandoning its conservative Muslim values on her way to winning the title.

Stoning and flogging constitute torture in any circumstances. Imposing these draconian punishments on private, consensual conduct means the government can dictate people's intimate lives – Elaine Pearson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch

As the people of West Sumatra gather the ruins of their lives around them and slowly start again, forced to accept there are bodies that will never be recovered from last week's earthquake and landslides, residents of Aceh can only watch with sorrow and understanding.

Jakarta – The debate about whether to review Aceh's bylaw that allows adulterers to be stoned heated up Tuesday, with religious leaders voicing their objection to the enactment of the law.

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – Aceh Governor Irwandi Yusuf has refused to sign the controversial Qanun Jinayat Code, or Islamic bylaw, and asked newly installed members of the Aceh legislature to deliberate on the draft again.

Camelia Pasandaran – Despite widespread condemnation, the Aceh Legislative Council said on Sunday that it would implement a bylaw that allows the stoning of adulterers and the lashing of persons caught having sex out of wedlock.

Camelia Pasandaran – Hundreds of Acehnese displaced by the December 2004 tsunami celebrated Idul Fitri in a squalid camp in Aceh Besar district, prompting calls on Wednesday for the provincial government to determine how many people are still living in temporary housing after nearly five years.

Hotli Simanjuntak, Banda Aceh – More woman's groups in Aceh are calling for a review of the new bylaw which allows capital punishment by stoning for adulterers, though the local government has already refused to sign it.

Hotli Simanjuntak, Banda Aceh – Widespread deforestation in the Islamic province of Aceh is threatening some of its rich traditions, including one ancient custom practiced to celebrate the holy month of Ramadan.

Hotli Simanjuntak, Banda Aceh – The Aceh provincial government will not sign the controversial Islamic bylaw allowing adulterers to be stoned to death, an official said.

Hamid Zein, the head of the legal bureau of the Aceh governor's office, said Thursday that the administration has firmly rejected the bylaw passed by the legislative council on Monday.

Sunanda Creagh – Recent moves in the country, including plans by Aceh to stone adulterers to death, have raised concerns about its reputation as a beacon of moderate Islam.

Human rights watchdog Amnesty International has joined the chorus of condemnation against Aceh province's passing of a new Islamic law calling for adulterers to be stoned to death and homosexuality and premarital sex to be punished by lashes.

In a statement released on Thursday, the organization called for the law to be repealed immediately.

A statement from an NGO coalition based in Aceh, Indonesia forwarded by the Asian Human Rights Commission

A new Indonesian bylaw that endorses stoning to death for adultery and caning of up to 100 lashes for homosexuality should be repealed immediately, Amnesty International said on Thursday.

Ronna Nirmala – Although the passage of a local bylaw in staunchly Muslim Aceh that requires adulterers to be stoned to death has shocked many here and abroad, some experts on Wednesday said such a law was legally acceptable.

Erwida Maulia and Hotli Simanjuntak, Jakarta, Banda Aceh – The national rights body for women is calling for a judicial review of Aceh's Administrative Law, after the province's outgoing lawmakers passed a bylaw introducing stoning as the punishment for adultery.

Lynn Lee – A new law passed in Aceh to stone to death married people who commit adultery as well as whip homosexuals who have sex is being seen as a last-ditch move by conservative Islamic lawmakers to impose their preferences on society.

Camelia Pasandaran & Febriamy Hutapea – The central government would strike down a controversial new bylaw mandating that residents of Aceh convicted of adultery be stoned to death if it was found to violate national laws or the country's Constitution, a spokesman for President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said on Tuesday.

Hotli Simanjuntak, Banda Aceh – Defying strong objections from human rights groups and the provincial administration, the Aceh legislative council passed the Islamic criminal code Monday, allowing adulterers to be stoned to death.

Under the new bylaw, homosexuality is also punishable by lengthy prison terms.

Lawmakers in the Indonesian province of Aceh have passed a law that would see Muslims found guilty of adultery, stoned to death.

Presenter: Katie Hamann

Speakers: Bachrom Rashid, United Development party and legislative member Bachrom Rashid; Harian Aceh, Thayeb Loh Angen is the Editor of the popular newspaper; Nur Kholis, National Commission on Human Rights member

Fakhrurradzie Gade, Banda Aceh – Adulterers can be stoned to death and homosexuality is punishable by steep prison terms under a new law passed unanimously by lawmakers in Indonesia's devoutly Muslim Aceh province Monday.

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – Despite opposition from human rights activists, the Aceh Legislative Council on Monday endorsed a bylaw mandating stoning to death for adulterers and lashings for unmarried persons caught engaging in sexual intercourse.

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – With lawmakers in Indonesia's Aceh province set to pass a draconian Shariah bill on Monday that could lead to married Muslims being stoned to death for committing adultery and single people lashed 100 times for premarital sex, local officials sought to distance themselves from quick implementation of the measure.

Jakarta – Human rights activists and legislators have condemned the Aceh Legislative Council's (DPRD) plan to pass a regional bill that would see those found guilty of "ethical" crimes, such as adultery, stoned in public.

Tom Allard, Jakarta – Religious conservatives in Aceh are trying to ram through Islamic laws that would allow stoning to death for adulterers and public lashings for those who engage in premarital sex.

The laws are likely to be voted next week by the provincial legislature in Aceh, just weeks before a new, pro-secular government takes control of the parliament.

Hotli Simanjuntak, Banda Aceh – Students from the Communication Forum for Sharia staged a rally on Tuesday at the Aceh legislative council building in Banda Aceh, demanding legislators immediately approve the jinayat, or Islamic criminal law, before the end of their tenure this year.

Nurdin Hasan & Dessy Sagita – Married Muslims in Indonesia's staunchly Islamic province of Aceh could be publicly stoned for committing adultery under a new piece of legislation that the autonomous province's legislature is scheduled to pass on Monday.

Hotli Simanjuntak, Banda Aceh – An announcement which reads "Only non-Muslims allowed" is attached to the door of a food stall in Peunayong, Banda Aceh, the only province in the country which has implemented sharia law.

Urgent Appeal Case: AHRC-UAC-105-2009

Dear friends,

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that Krueng Raya police arrested a man without a warrant and tortured him in custody. He died in hospital on the day of his arrest, however no legal action has been initiated against the officers responsible.

Case details:

Arti Ekawati – More than 200,000 hectares of Aceh's rain forests were cut down between 2006 and 2008 for use in the province's post-tsunami reconstruction, an environmental lobby group said on Wednesday.

Michael Vatikiotis, Singapore – To visit Aceh today is to experience something the world rarely sees; the dividends of peace.

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – After the economic boom from rebuilding projects in the wake of the 2004 earthquake and tsunami, growth in the non-oil and gas sectors in Aceh has dropped as reconstruction activities draw to a close.

The World Bank released this conclusion in data made public on Wednesday in Banda Aceh.