Banda Aceh – A court martial in Aceh province on Friday cleared 12 soldiers of beating villagers during a hunt for separatist rebels in the province.

Nani Farida, Banda Aceh – An Aceh woman activist denied on Thursday the treason charge leveled against her, saying she had campaigned for a referendum as part of efforts to settle the p

Dulhadi, Jakarta – A class action suit which was launched by the People's Lawyers Union (Serikat Pengacara Rakyat, SPR) against President Megawati Sukarnoputri, TNI [armed forces] chief

Indonesia's chief security minister Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said that separatist rebels in troubled Aceh province are the country's greatest threat, well ahead of terrorists.

Apriadi Gunawan, Medan – The Medan district court is scheduled to begin the trial next week in Medan of 11 alleged members of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) on charges of planting bombs i

Amid the ongoing military operation to quell the armed rebellion in Aceh, it is very difficult to meet with GAM leaders.

Jakarta – Aceh-Papua Solidarity (Solidaritas Aceh-Papua, SAP) – which is made up of a number of non-government organisations (NGOs) – has called on the government not to extend the mili

Tiarma Siboro, Surabaya – President Megawati Soekarnoputri pledged on Sunday to resolve the conflict in Aceh as quickly, wisely, and justly as possible but fell short of divulging any t

Indonesia's military campaign to crush separatist rebels in Aceh province, now in its fifth month, has created a humanitarian crisis, a human rights group said in a report.

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, Jakarta – The government pledged on Thursday to take stern measures against officials who misused humanitarian aid allocated by the state for Aceh but said the

Tiarma Siboro, Surabaya – Indonesian Military (TNI) Commander Gen.

Banda Aceh – Eight separatist rebels and three civilians have been killed in Aceh province where an anti-rebel campaign is in its fifth month, the Indonesian military said Friday.

By Teuku Samsul Bahri

A. Grassroots economic situation

Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta – The martial law administration in Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam will immediately court-martial 12 soldiers on charges of torturing dozens of villagers in a move that

Fabiola Desy Unidjaja and Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta – The government has played down the Human Rights Watch's accusation of gross human rights abuses in the ongoing military operation in A

Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta – Indonesian Military (TNI) chief Gen.

The division between Islamic and secular laws will be put to the test in the Indonesian province of Aceh, as the treason trial of five pro-separatist negotiators continues next week.

Jakarta – Indonesia's military claimed partial success on Friday in a four-month campaign to crush rebels in Aceh province but said it needed more time to end the insurgency.

Jakarta – The United Nations must pressure Indonesia into allowing relief aid into its war-torn province of Aceh in order to prevent a full-blown humanitarian crisis from developing in

The Indonesian military said soldiers have shot and captured alive a rebel "governor" in Aceh province, marking the first arrest of a senior rebel leader since a major offensive began i

James Balowski, Jakarta – Indonesian government officials and high-ranking military officers have been hinting that, despite the military's (TNI) much-touted successes in its war agains

Jakarta – In order to resolve the conflict in Aceh there must be a new political party which does not have the mentality and methods of the New Order [regime of former President Suharto

James Balowski, Jakarta – Indonesian government officials and high-ranking military officers have been hinting that, despite the military's (TNI) much-touted successes in its war agains

Nani Farida, Banda Aceh – The ongoing military operation in Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam (NAD) appears to now be directly involving the participation of civilians, with around 1,000 village

Jakarta – Revoking the status of a military emergency in Aceh is a prerequisite for holding general elections in Aceh. If not, it will be difficult to hope for quality elections.

After blaming the press, human rights groups and anyone who expresses a critical view on the military operation in Aceh as obstacles to the failure of the government to speedily elimina

Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, Jakarta – The government has prepared the necessary documents to have the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) separatist group and its leaders placed on the United Nations's

Eight separatist rebels including a local leader have been killed in fresh clashes in Indonesia's war-torn Aceh province, the military said.

James Balowski, Jakarta – As many as 100 women have been raped since martial law was declared in Indonesia's northern-most province of Aceh on May 19.

Jakarta - The forced relocation of a population, as has occurred in Aceh, can be viewed as a crime against humanity.

Vannessa Hearman, Melbourne – Rachland Nashidik, who visited Australia at the invitation of Indonesian Solidarity, is program director of Imparsial, a human-rights monitoring organisati

Baradan Kuppusamy, Kuala Lumpur – The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is sending a delegation to Kuala Lumpur to discuss the fate of some 2,500 Acehnese asylum see

Banda Aceh – Indonesia's military accused separatist rebels on Tuesday of gunning down a woman and her two daughters at their home in war-torn Aceh province.

Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta – The 2004 general elections should not be used as an excuse by the government to maintain the presence of thousands of troops in the war-torn Aceh province, says

Three people including a soldier have been killed in clashes between troops and separatists in the Indonesian province of Aceh, the military said.

Indonesian troops have arrested 27 suspected separatist rebels in a day of raids in the restive province of Aceh, a report said.

UN High Commissioner for Refugees Ruud Lubbers has voiced concern to Malaysia over its plans to expel some 250 asylum seekers, including women and children, who fled the war-torn Indone

Jakarta - The Coordinating Minister for Politics and Security, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, has explained that the government would not be reducing TNI [Indonesian military] and national p

Nani Farida and Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, Jakarta – At least 108 people have gone missing in Aceh since the government launched its integrated operation in the troubled province on May 19,

Banda Aceh – At least 319 civilians have been killed, 108 disappeared and 117 others have been wounded since the military emergency in Aceh came into force on May 19.

Jakarta – Indonesian armed forces (TNI) chief General Endriartono Sutarto has stated that the TNI is considering extending the integrated operation in Aceh until the 2004 general electi

Jakarta – The Indonesian government will soon send Swedish prosecutors more evidence on Acehnese separatist leader-turned-Swedish citizen, Hassan Tiro's alleged involvement in criminal

Four suspected separatist rebels and a civilian have been killed in Indonesia's Aceh province where troops are in the fourth month of an assault on the guerrillas, the military said.

Lhokseumawe – The chairperson of the National Human Rights Commission (Komnas HAM), Abdul Hakim Garuda Nusantara, has said that that the Komnas HAM Ad Hoc Team for Aceh will investigate

As Indonesia celebrates 58 years of independence, Four Corners looks at south-east Asia's most brutal and unrelenting conflict ... the Aceh civil war.

Nine suspected separatist rebels and two civilians have been killed in Indonesia's Aceh province during the fourth month of an operation to crush the guerrillas, police and the military

Jakarta – The accusation that particular members of TNI [Indonesian armed forces] have committed rapes has surfaced again.

Human rights groups say, since martial law was introduced in Indonesia's war ravaged province of Aceh in May, to crack down on the separatist Free Aceh Movement, schools have been burnt

Kurniawan Hari and Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta – Most national newspapers and television stations have failed to uphold the basic principle of covering both sides in reporting the Aceh confl

Kirsten E. Schulze – The military operation against the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) has entered the fourth month of what increasingly looks like an indeterminate period.