Aguswandi, Banda Aceh – Expectations are high while the possibilities for violence are likely slim in the scheduled December elections in Aceh.

Nani Afrida, Banda Aceh – Aceh needs at least 10,000 election observers to help ensure just and democratic regional polls in Aceh on Dec.

Foster Klug, Washington – The head of the European Union-led peace monitoring mission in Indonesia's devastated Aceh province predicted on Thursday a smooth transition when the European

Ahmad Pathoni, Jakarta – Most people in Indonesia's tsunami-hit Aceh province want to vote in December's landmark elections but many wrongly believe they are not registered to do so, a

Nani Afrida, Banda Aceh – Eight pairs of candidates are eligible to contest Aceh's Dec. 11 gubernatorial elections, the Aceh Independent Elections Commission declared Monday.

Banda Aceh – A former Indonesian general and a separatist rebel are among eight candidates running for governor in the once-volatile province of Aceh next month, an election official sa

Sydney – The democratic process has moved forward in Aceh province.

Nani Afrida, Banda Aceh – Aceh's first-ever direct elections are scheduled for December, yet many eligible voters may be unable to cast ballots because they have not registered.

Ridwan Max Sijabat and Nani Afrida, Jakarta/Banda Aceh – The European Union election monitoring mission is upbeat Aceh's first direct elections, scheduled for December, will proceed pea

Banda Aceh – An eight-person team from the European Union has begun monitoring work ahead of elections in Indonesia's Aceh province, the head of the monitoring mission said Tuesday.

Vanda Mutia Dewi, Jakarta – A recent report by Greenomics Indonesia revealed some very interesting facts about who exactly is to blame for the delays affecting the reconstruction proces

Ridwan Max Sijabat, Jakarta – Former rebels may lose upcoming direct elections in Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam because they have split into two rival groups, analysts say.

Sutarto, Jakarta – Sidney Jones, President Director of the International Crisis Group for Southeast Asia, estimates that regional leaders' election in Aceh will be safe.

Ridwan Max Sijabat, Jakarta – An Acehnese woman is fighting to contest this year's direct gubernatorial election, saying the local poll body unfairly declared her unable to read the Kor

Jakarta – Election officials in Indonesia's strife-torn Aceh province have ordered that potential candidates for upcoming provincial polls must be able to recite from the Koran, Islam's

Jakarta – The challenge of staging polls in Indonesia's Aceh this year should not derail a peace pact signed in 2005 between separatists and the government, an analyst said Thursday.

Jakarta – Peace in Indonesia's once-restive Aceh province should hold even if former separatist rebels running in December's local elections fail to win any posts, analysts said on Thur

Adisti Sukma Sawitri, Jakarta – The involvement of non-governmental organizations and foreign donors in rebuilding the tsunami-ravaged province of Aceh has yet to provide women with a g

Kampung Jawa – The tsunami of 2004 triggered the biggest humanitarian response in history, feeding the hungry, heading off epidemics and engendering the hope that out of a calamity that

Banda Aceh – Oxfam International's staff in Indonesia's Aceh province knew something was amiss last March when they started seeing inflated bills for construction supplies.

Jakarta – Hundreds of tsunami survivors threw rocks at police in Aceh on Wednesday during a protest to demand housing and jobs at the Aceh-Nias Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Agency

Banda Aceh – Indonesia's tsunami reconstruction agency pledged Wednesday to speed up aid to the homeless after police clashed with protesters at a blockade of its offices.

Banda Aceh – Hundreds of Indonesian protesters vented their anger on Wednesday against the state body tasked with reconstructing tsunami-hit Aceh province, throwing stones at police and

Milla Sundstrvm, Helsinki – "Amid all the destruction and loss the mood was high. People were making bricks, digging fishponds, building fishing boats.

Ridwan Max Sijabat, Jakarta – A new study recommends transferring the job of rebuilding Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam to the incoming provincial administration, in order to bypass problems i

Jakarta – A record-breaking increase in revenue has failed to alleviate high levels of poverty in Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam, according to a new report.

Nani Afrida, Banda Aceh – Prosecutors have named two staffers of the Aceh and Nias Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Agency (BRR) as suspects in alleged corruption involving the publica

Nani Afrida, Banda Aceh – More than 2,000 displaced people from 14 regencies in Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam braved a heavy rain Monday to stage a protest at the Aceh-Nias Reconstruction an

Ridwan Max Sijabat, Jakarta – Anticorruption watchdogs are urging an exhaustive probe of possible irregularities in rebuilding projects at the Aceh and Nias Rehabilitation and Reconstru

Ridwan Max Sijabat, Jakarta – The Aceh-Nias Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Agency (BRR) acknowledged Monday bypassing official procedures in carrying out several projects, but said i

Jakarta – The Attorney General's Office is looking into a report of alleged irregularities in Aceh-Nias Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Agency (BRR) projects.

Banda Aceh – At least 75 percent of former Free Aceh Movement (GAM) rebels are out of work after returning to their hometowns, the World Bank says.

Jakarta – The United Nations has lodged a complaint after Muslim morality police in Indonesia's tsunami-ravaged Aceh province broke into a UN diplomatic compound and peered through wind

Marianne Kearney, Jakarta – Former Acehnese rebels are calling for rights abusers from the province's civil war to be put on trial.

Tony Hotland, Jakarta – President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono conferred honorary state medals Friday to former Finnish president Martti Ahtisaari and three other foreigners for their role

Michael Morfit, Jakarta – The Free Aceh Movement, known locally as the Gerakan Acheh Merdeka (GAM), and Indonesia's government on Monday marked the first anniversary of a peace agreemen

Nurdin Hassan, Banda Aceh – Tens of thousands have rallied in Indonesia's Aceh, celebrating a full year of peace but calling on Jakarta to honour the pact which ended three decades of s

Fakhurradzie M.

Abdul Khalik, Jakarta – The formerly rebellious Free Aceh Movement(GAM) is dissatisfied with several articles in the newly enacted law on Aceh governance, but its leaders say the group

Tony Hotland, Jakarta – It is rare to get a behind-the-scenes look at historic events.

Banda Aceh – Thousands of people from various regions of Aceh have began arriving in Banda Aceh to commemorated one year since the Helsinki agreement that falls on August 15 tomorrow.

Titis Setianingtyas, Jakarta – The First Minister of GAM (Gerakan Aceh Merdeka) Malik Mahmud Al Haytar has declared that the introduction of Syariat Islam in Aceh is not welcomed by the

Tiro – Eyes red with tears, Alamsyah Mahmud recalls how in 2001, Indonesian paramilitaries swooped on his village in Tiro, the birthplace of Aceh's rebel movement, rounding up people an

M.

M.

Nani Afrida, Banda Aceh – Residents of Mane village in Pidie, Aceh, who lost family members and homes during the 30-year conflict between the government and the Free Aceh Movement have

Jakarta – A former senior separatist from Indonesia's Aceh said Thursday that a new generation of rebels could be spawned within a decade amid dismay over the implementation of a peace

Jakarta – Some 90% of people in Indonesia's Aceh province say they agree with Islamic laws that punish gamblers with caning and force women to cover their heads in public, according to

Rudy Madanir and Christine Tjandraningsih, Jakarta – A recent survey has found that the majority of people in Aceh are satisfied with the current condition in the northernmost Indonesia

Achmad Sukarsono, Jakarta – Indonesia plans to hold the first direct elections in once-volatile Aceh province by December 10, a government minister said on Thursday.