Nani Afrida, Banda Aceh – Aceh environmental activist Bestari Raden, who has been found guilty of subverting national security and public order, has vowed to challenge the court's verdict.
One of Bestari's lawyers, Nurul Ikhsan, said on Tuesday his client, who was sentenced to two years and six months in jail, had pleaded not guilty, and would keep seeking justice.
Indonesia said Monday that security in war-torn Aceh province has improved because nearly 7,000 rebels have been killed or captured and most rebel strongholds seized in the past 16 months.
Saiful Mahdi, Ithaca, New York – The people have high expectations of the popular president-in-waiting Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, although some are skeptical of his capabilities. It is expected that he will wage an all-out war against corruption – as he promised – and bring about economic reform.
Banda Aceh – The Indonesian Military has captured Muhammad Aris, 72, the governor of the Aceh Free Movement (GAM) for Pidie region, in a raid in Pidie district, the military said on Sunday.
Indonesia needs to tidy up at home before it seeks membership of the UN Security Council.
It was an unhappy coincidence. On the same day that Indonesia launched its bid for a seat on the United Nations Security Council, a human rights watchdog issued a report pointing to the routine use of torture by the Indonesian military against political prisoners in Aceh.
Banda Aceh – Aceh civil emergency administrator Insp. Gen. Bahrumsyah Kasman has questioned the recent Human Rights Watch reports detailing the systematic abuse of Free Aceh Movement prisoners.
"They have just created a story which has not been verified yet," Bahrumsyah, who is also Aceh police chief, said on Thursday.
Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta – A leading rights watchdog has called on the next Indonesian president to reopen cases of alleged abuse and torture against Acehnese prisoners, saying the military and police were using violence to extract baseless confessions from those accused of having links to the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) rebel group.
Jakarta – The Indonesian Military (TNI) is ready to punish soldiers found to have tortured detained members of the Aceh separatist movement to extract information, its spokesman, Lt Col Ahmad Yani Basuki, said here on Tuesday.
Ellen Nakashima, Jakarta – Indonesian security forces have used torture and inhumane treatment to force confessions from suspected separatists and their sympathizers in the province of Aceh, where the government and rebels have fought a long-running conflict, a human rights group alleges in a report to be released Monday.
Banda Aceh – The continuing armed conflict in Aceh has cost the lives of husbands of 14,000 women in the province over the past 15 years, according to one agency.
Jakarta – Indonesian presidential front-runner Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on Wednesday called for a peaceful end to Indonesia's bloodiest internal conflict, the 28-year separatist war in Aceh province.
Banda Aceh – The Aceh government started on Tuesday its third "re-education" course in nationalism for former separatist rebels who had been captured or surrendered during the one-year military crackdown on the province. The course involves 340 former rebels who were previously in military jails.
Nani Afrida, Banda Aceh – The case file on First Lt. Simorangkir, a member of the Navy Military Police who shot five fellow soldiers in late August, has been submitted to the Military Court in Aceh for prosecution.
Jakarta – A leader of the insurgents fighting Indonesian rule in Aceh province said Tuesday he expects the war to continue even if a former peace negotiator is elected as Indonesia's new president.
Adam Tyson, Toronto – Aceh has always been an essential part of the vast Indonesian archipelago, being of great historical, economic and symbolic importance.
Banda Aceh – The Indonesian military said separatist rebels had killed seven civilians in the war-torn province of Aceh, according to a report Saturday.
Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, Jakarta – The United States ambassador-designate to Indonesia B. Lynn Pascoe said that encouraging and facilitating the peace process in Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam would be among his priorities during his tenure in Indonesia. Current ambassador Ralph L. Boyce served in Indonesia since October 2001.
His name is not as popular as that of Ishak Daud or Sofyan Daud. But this rotund man is a key figure in the Free Aceh Movement (GAM). He says he is the one who linked up Aceh Governor Abdullah Puteh with GAM Prime Minister Malik Mahmud at the end of 1999.
Jakarta – Indonesian soldiers who killed a senior separatist leader in the conflict-hit province of Aceh are to receive a reward equivalent to US$16,000, an official said on Saturday.
East Aceh Regent Azman Usmanuddin said he would make good on an earlier promise to reward anyone who caught rebel leader Ishak Daud "dead or alive".
Jakarta – Indonesian security forces killed 11 suspected rebels during gunbattles in the country's restive Aceh province, a military spokesman said Thursday.
Jakarta – Indonesian troops shot and killed five alleged separatist rebels – all but one of them unarmed – in the country's westernmost province of Aceh, a military spokesman said Wednesday.
The men were gunned down in separate incidents Monday and Tuesday, said Lt. Col. Asep Sapari. Soldiers seized one handgun and ammunition from the men, he said. He gave no more details.
Jakarta – A non-governmental organization (NGO) expressed its concern about the presence of 19 alleged militias in Aceh, which all fall under the supervision of the local military command.
In a statement signed by coordinator Bonar Tigor Naipospos, the Friends of Aceh said the militias could trigger conflict among civilians in the war-torn province.
Aceh Governor Abdullah Puteh, still the subject of an ongoing corruption investigation, is now facing accusations of supporting the separatist Free Aceh Movement (GAM).
Nani Afrida, Banda Aceh – A soldier from the Siliwangi Military Command posted in Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam recently complained about his length of duty in the province.
"I have been posted in Aceh for nearly 13 months. There is still no sign of us returning home. I always long for my family," he said.
Banda Aceh – Indonesian troops shot dead three suspected separatists in the restive province of Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam, while 11 other suspected rebels surrendered in six separate areas of the province, the military said on Saturday.
Nani Afrida, Banda Aceh – At least 421 separatist rebels have been killed since Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam was placed under a state of civil emergency three months ago, an official has said.
Sr. Comr. Sayed Hoesainy of Aceh's civil emergency administration said on Tuesday that the rebels were killed during military operations since May 19.
Banda Aceh – An armed gang fired on a passenger bus late on Monday in Keude Jurong subdistrict, some 450 kilometers east of Banda Aceh municipality, leaving five passengers injured, three seriously.
If only the Indonesian Museum of Records would put on record the busiest man selling a government project to the public, Mahmun Yunan would make a good choice.
Abdul Khalik, Jakarta – The police denied on Friday charges leveled by a joint monitory team that they embezzled billions of rupiah from material procurement and construction projects in Aceh while the province was under martial law.
Abdul Khalik, Jakarta – The police denied on Friday charges leveled by a joint monitory team that they embezzled billions of rupiah from material procurement and construction projects in Aceh while the province was under martial law.
Nani Afrida and Yuli Tri Suwarni, Banda Aceh/Bandung – Seventy-four convicted Free Aceh Movement (GAM) separatists arrived on Thursday afternoon in Bandung amid tight security.
Banda Aceh – An Indonesian soldier serving in war-torn Aceh province opened fire on other troops at an army barracks, killing four and wounding one, an army spokesman said Tuesday.
The soldier, whose name wasn't released, has been arrested and is undergoing psychological tests, said Lt. Col. Ahmad Yani Basuki.
Nani Afrida, Banda Aceh – Defying public protest, 54 of the total 55 councillors of Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam council accepted on Saturday the accountability report of the expenditure of Aceh's 2003 budget.
The acceptance paves the way for embattled Aceh Governor Abdullah Puteh, who is a graft suspect, to continue as governor until 2005, when his term comes to an end.
Jakarta – Indonesia's 15-month military offensive against separatists in Aceh province has failed to crush the insurgency and left Indonesian forces in a quagmire from which they cannot escape, a senior rebel commander said Monday.
Alue Gintong – A major military operation to crush a rebellion in Indonesia's Aceh province will be over within a year, President Megawati Sukarnoputri said Thursday, as the rebels vowed a fight to the death.
Banda Aceh – A prosecutor has recommended that the South Aceh District Court sentence environmentalist Bestari Raden, 45, to five years in prison for his alleged attempt to subvert national security and public order, a lawyer revealed on Friday.
John Tribbett, Kuala Lumpur – It's late at night and I'm sitting in a 24-hour restaurant drinking tea with a group of Acehnese refugees, all men in their early twenties.
Nani Afrida, Banda Aceh – After more than one year of the military operations that started in Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam in May 2003, President Megawati Soekarnoputri for the first time on Thursday visited soldiers and police in an isolated area of the war-torn province.
Alue Gintong – The military operation to crush the rebellion in the Aceh province will be over within a year, President Megawati Sukarnoputri said.
Megawati, who flew into Aceh under heavy security today, pledged an end to the fighting at a ceremony where she addressed troops who have been battling since May 2003 after the collapse of a truce.
Nethy Dharma Somba, Jayapura – In an attempted show of force, rebels in Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam and Papua launched attacks separately on Indonesian security personnel on Tuesday, leaving at least 10 civilians injured, six rebels dead and one soldier heavily wounded.
The Indonesian Defense Forces (TNI) says it has killed 1,159 separatist rebels in Aceh province over the past 10 months as part of an ongoing operation to eliminate the outlawed Free Aceh Movement (GAM).
Banda Aceh – A series of explosions that left at least seven people injured, including a five-year-old boy, in the country's troubled province of Aceh rumbled Indonesia's anniversary of independence, police officials said Tuesday.
Anton Aliabbas, Jakarta – What's the relationship with the commemoration of the Indonesia's 59th anniversary and the state of civil emergency in Aceh? Who knows.
Jakarta – The National Human Rights Commission (Komnas HAM) is being urged to immediately investigate the arrest and torture of eight Acehnese Humanitarian Volunteers Association (Perhimpunan Relawan Kemanusiaan Aceh, Pemraka) activists and two civilians by police on August 7.
Jakarta – A number of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) protested on Wednesday the arrest of two humanitarian workers by security personnel in Aceh last week, on the suspicion that the two were members of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM).
Banda Aceh – The average height of children first entering school in Aceh over the last six years has decreased by eight centimeters. In 1997 the average height of children first entering school was 119cm however by the end of 2003 the average was only 110cm.
Nani Afrida, Banda Aceh – Security personnel have again arrested aid workers in the violence-ravaged province of Aceh, following a high-profile arrest to an environmental activist earlier this year.
The head of the Indonesian military command overseeing the restive province of Aceh has said that controversial air strikes have been effective in battling separatist guerrillas there.
Banda Aceh – Indonesia's military said on Tuesday its warplanes attacked two suspected rebel bases in Aceh province, in the second use of air power against the separatists in a week.
There are claims that the Indonesian military and police have been extorting bribes from Acehnese asylum seekers and selling them into slavery. The claims have been backed by refugee advocates working closely with the UN refugee agency in Malaysia, where thousands of Acehnese are facing expulsion under a government crackdown on illegal workers.