Radzie, Banda Aceh – The earthquake and tsunami at the end of 2004 and the signing of the peace agreement between the Indonesian government and the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) in August 20

Jakarta – The spokesman of ther Free Aceh Movement (GAM) in Aceh Irwandi Yusuf confirmed that GAM high-ranking officials, Hasan Tiro and Malik Mahmud, would not visit Aceh in the near f

Before the tsunami, Banda Aceh was a ghost town at night except for patrols of feared paramilitary police.

Jakarta – An EU-led team monitoring a peace deal in tsunami-ravaged Aceh province will extend its mission by at least three more months to oversee crucial elections, Indonesia's vice pr

John Aglionby, Jakarta – Indonesia is today scheduled to complete the withdrawal of its 21,000 non-local soldiers from Aceh as part of a peace agreement to end a 29-year separatist insu

A'an Suryana and Nani Afrida, Banda Aceh – The Free Aceh Movement (GAM) announced the dissolution of its military wing here on Tuesday in another move to achieve long-lasting peace in t

A'an Suryana and Nani Afrida, Banda Aceh – Ignoring mounting criticism, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has approved a plan for the Indonesian Military to deploy troops to help speed

Nani Afrida, special to The Seattle Times – It has been one year since the tsunami devastated Aceh.

A'an Suryana and Nani Afrida, Banda Aceh – Tearful mourners gathered here on Monday to offer prayers and lay flowers on the first anniversary of the Indian Ocean tsunami, one of the wor

Banda Aceh – General Endriartono Sutarto, Commander of the Indonesian Military (TNI), has said that the TNI operational command based in Lhokseumawe would be closed down following the w

Banda Aceh – President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono denied earlier reports saying he planned to send more than 15,000 troops to Aceh, saying the soldiers would number less than 1,000 and wo

Banda Aceh – Indonesia's Aceh rebels formally disbanded their armed wing on Tuesday in a major step toward ending one of Asia's longest separatist conflicts.

A'an Suryana, Banda Aceh – Despite mounting criticism, the Aceh-Nias Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Agency (BRR) is pressing ahead with its plan to request the Indonesian Military (T

Hera Diani, Jakarta – People in Aceh and Nias have expressed little satisfaction in the progress of reconstruction and rehabilitation work in tsunami-hit areas, despite the government's

Banda Aceh – Some parents in tsunami-ravaged Aceh province are still clinging to hopes for a miracle, placing photos of smiling children in newspapers on the chance they might still be

Sian Powell, Banda Aceh – Tensions between fundamentalist Muslims and Western aid workers have begun to erupt in Aceh as the tsunami-devastated Indonesian province slowly recovers.

Mark Forbes, Jakarta – Indonesia's military has announced plans to deploy more than 10,000 troops in Aceh to speed tsunami reconstruction, a move that threatens the province's brittle p

Banda Aceh – Bustari Mansyur shrugs wearily when asked how many bodies his workers retrieved from the mangled wreckage of last December's tsunami. The question seems irrelevant.

A'an Suryana and Tiarma Siboro, Banda Aceh/Jakarta – The government has drawn strong criticism for its plan to deploy 15 battalions, or about 15,000 soldiers, to help speed up reconstru

A'an Suryana, Banda Aceh – A year after the tsunami, signs of recovery are evident among Acehnese children, but many challenges remain, a UN body has said.

Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta – The Indonesian Military (TNI) is preparing to deploy 15 battalions of troops to speed up reconstruction efforts in tsunami-hit Aceh.

A'an Suryana, Banda Aceh – One year after the Indian Ocean tsunami, children in Indonesia are recovering at a slower pace compared to children in other countries affected by the destruc

Jakarta – The decommissioning and dispersal of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) military wing is inadequate for the Indonesian Military (TNI). TNI chief Gen.

A'an Suryana, Banda Aceh – "I'm tired. I have been writing a lot about reconstruction and rehabilitation efforts in Aceh but the progress here has been slow.

Banda Aceh – Former Aceh rebels watched on Wednesday as international peace monitors fed a final batch of their weapons into a circular saw, a symbolic end to the nearly three-decade of

Jakarta – The Indonesian Forum for Environment (Walhi) urged the government on Wednesday to immediately cancel forest concession rights that have been given to logging companies operati

Thousands of Indonesian troops have begun withdrawing from Aceh province in the last phase of a peace plan agreed with the rebels.

Marcus Tanner, Banda Aceh – There can't be many guerrilla leaders with escape stories like Yusuf Irwandi's.

Muninggar Sri Saraswati and Nani Afrida, Jakarta – The government is expected to extend the presence of international peace monitors in Aceh, previously scheduled to finish their job in

Banda Aceh – Indonesia withdrew 1,600 troops from Aceh province as part of a pact aimed at ending a separatist conflict in the province devastated by last year's tsunami.

Banda Aceh – Former rebels in Indonesia's Aceh today surrendered enough weapons in a final disarmament process to meet the total required under a historic peace pact with the Government

A. Junaidi – Acehnese writer Riati M.K.

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, Jakarta – The head of the Aceh and Nias Reconstruction Agency (BRR) praised on Friday the role of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) in the work being done to rebuild

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, Jakarta – Vice President Jusuf Kalla said on Thursday that the current peace-building process in Aceh was on the right track, giving optimism for a lasting peac

Banda Aceh – The commander of the Iskandar Muda Territorial Command, Major General Supiadin AS, says that there are no grounds to extend the presence of the Aceh Monitoring Mission (AMM

Hera Diani, Jakarta – Despite a slow start, progress has been made in tsunami-ravaged Aceh, with the pace of reconstruction picking up.

Jakarta – It is expected that the provisions on resolving human rights violations in Aceh will again attract sharp debate in dissuasions on the Draft Law on the Organisation of a Govern

Jakarta – The head of reconstruction in Indonesia's tsunami-devastated Aceh province defended the pace of home rebuilding for survivors on Thursday, saying it was exceeding the country'

Jakarta – The efforts to create lasting peace in tsunami-devastated Aceh have been more successful than expected thus far, but the process has now entered a critical stage, a report say

Andrew Steele, Jakarta – The wagons are already circling.

Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta – The demands for Aceh's partition should not be a priority for immediate discussion so as to avoid shifting the focus of attention from the reconstruction work i

Tiarma Siboro and Muninggar Sri Saraswati, Jakarta – If responded to by the government, the demands for Aceh's partition into three provinces could undermine the peace accord it signed

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, Jakarta – The government and lawmakers are listening to demands for the partition of Aceh into three provinces, even though it may infringe on the peace agreeme

Banda Aceh – The Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Board (BRR) of Aceh and Nias has received 206 complaints from the public, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and the government up

Shawn Donnan, Jakarta – Saturday nights in Banda Aceh for years meant ducking off the streets to avoid curfews, enforced by soldiers and paramilitary police in armoured personnel carrie

Shoeb Kagda, Jakarta – Nearly one year after 15-metre-high waves smashed into the Aceh coast, the Indonesian province worst hit by the Dec 26 tsunami is slowly but surely regaining its

Nani Afrida, Banda Aceh – The Free Aceh Movement (GAM) marked its 29th anniversary quietly on Sunday by holding prayers at mosques across Aceh province.

Banda Aceh – Sympathizers of former rebels in Aceh commemorate the movement's anniversary across the tsunami-ravaged province in a modest way on Sunday, following the rebels' decision t

Tim Hume – Teenage tsunami survivors in Indonesia's stricken Aceh province are turning to marijuana to escape the trauma and despair.

Nani Afrida and Tiarma Siboro, Banda Aceh/Jakarta – Former Aceh rebels have decided against celebrating the 29nd anniversary of their movement on Sunday to show their commitment to prom