Michael Bachelard, Kuala Simpang, Aceh – On the map, the Leuser Ecosystem is shaped like a gigantic pair of lungs. The image is apt.

Hotli Simanjuntak, Banda Aceh – Female activists in Aceh, affiliated with the 231 Monitoring Network, have urged the government and police to investigate child abuse cases in the provin

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – Police in Aceh have named one of their own members a suspect in the alleged sexual abuse of at least two young girls, as clerics in the staunchly conservative

Hotli Simanjuntak, Banda Aceh – The Aceh administration's approval of the Qanun Hukum Acara Jinayat (criminal code procedure) bylaw authorizes sharia police in the province to detain an

Hotli Simanjuntak, Banda Aceh – Although the legislative election in Aceh on Wednesday was regarded as a success due to a lack of serious security issues, it was still marred by violenc

Jakarta – Indonesian Military (TNI) Commander Gen. Moeldoko on Friday offered an apology in light of the shooting of a Nasdem Party campaign post in North Aceh regency on Feb.

Index: ASA 21/010/2014

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – Three people, including a one-and-a-half-year-old infant, were killed in Aceh after unidentified gunmen fired on a car decked out with political banners, in w

Hotli Simanjuntak, Banda Aceh – The sharia police in Banda Aceh, Aceh Nanggroe Darussalam, have rounded up 15 young women after they were "caught" in a late-night coffee shop.

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – Escalating political tension and rampant violence in Aceh in the run-up to next month's the legislative election have prompted activists to declare an emergen

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – Police charged 21 members and supporters of the Aceh Party over a string of violent attacks on rival political parties ahead of the April legislative election

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – Two National Aceh Party (PNA) members were critically injured and a member of the Aceh Party (PA) was hospitalized for non-life-threatening injuries in relate

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – The Indonesian Military (TNI) said on Wednesday it was investigating allegations that several soldiers had rented their guns to the perpetrators of an attack

Farouk Arnaz, Jakarta – One of the participants in an attack on a National Democrat Party (NasDem) campaign office in Munyee Kunyet village, North Aceh in February was a former Free Ace

Banda Aceh – Two unidentified men threw a grenade at the Aceh Party office in Lueng Bata district, Banda Aceh, on Tuesday night, injuring a 9-year-old boy and damaging the office's door

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – Poor law enforcement and a failed political transformation by former militants involved in the separatist Free Aceh Movement (GAM) are responsible for several

Kennial Caroline Laia, Jakarta – A recent string of attacks against legislative candidates and political parties' headquarters in Aceh may be a form of dissatisfaction toward efforts to

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – An Aceh National Party (PNA) legislative candidate was shot and killed late Sunday night in a hail of bullets – the latest attack on the political party ahead

Yuliasri Perdani, Jakarta – The recent shooting of a National Democrat (NasDem) Party campaign post in Aceh was politically motivated, party members said.

Hotli Simanjuntak, Banda Aceh – Imposing sharia on non-Muslims is inappropriate as Islamic law only regulates matters relevant to Islam and to do so tarnishes the image of the faith and

Isabelle Arradon – It is always difficult to say when an armed conflict is truly "over".

Camelia Pasandaran, Jakarta – Human rights activists criticized the Aceh Shariah police on Friday for an official suggestion that non-Muslim women should wear the hijab in the semi-auto

Hotli Simanjuntak and Ina Parlina, Banda Aceh/Jakarta – Without much fanfare, the Aceh provincial administration and legislative council have approved the Qanun Jinayat (behavior-govern

Hotli Simanjuntak, Banda Aceh – The Aceh Legislative Council is deliberating a special bylaw that will force non-Muslims in the province to follow sharia.

Kate Lamb, Banda Aceh – At first glance the oddity of a lone palm tree on the shoreline, or a piece of graffiti with the words "hantu laut", meaning ghosts of the sea – also the words s

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – A rights group on Sunday reported a significant drop in the number of abuse-of-power cases in 2013 involving religious police officers enforcing shariah-inspi

Amnesty International has praised the Aceh parliament for passing a bylaw in December to establish a truth and reconciliation commission to investigate the abuses that took place during

Index: ASA 21/001/2014

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – Enforcement of the law and human rights remained shaky throughout 2013 in Aceh, a legal advocacy group says.

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – In defiance of a ban placed on New Year's Eve festivities, thousands of residents of Banda Aceh gathered downtown to celebrate the occasion with fireworks and

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – Shariah police in Aceh have confiscated thousands of fireworks, firecrackers and trumpets in the provincial capital as they enforce local ulemas' call for a b

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – Nearly half of infant deaths in Aceh were caused by poor nutrition, an official said on Saturday.

Andreas Harsono – Here's a seasonal snapshot from Indonesia's Aceh province: on 20 December, dozens of militant Islamists rallied outside one of the largest hotels in Banda Aceh, the pr

Hotli Simanjuntak, Banda Aceh – For almost the last eight years, Mairia, 33, has been living with her four children in a 3-by-4 meter room since the Indian Ocean tsunami swept her house

Hotli Simanjuntak, Banda Aceh – The Banda Aceh Ulema Consultative Assembly (MPU) has once again prohibited Muslims in the city from extending Christmas wishes and celebrating New Year's

Nurdin Hasan & SP/Muhammad Hamzah, Banda Aceh – Aceh installed on Monday a former separatist leader as the autonomous province's Wali Nanggroe – a "guardian of the state" who will o

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – Muslim residents of the capital of Aceh province may have to roll back their New Year's festivities this year.

An ongoing dispute over Aceh's star and crescent flag came to a head on Monday as thousands of local residents surrounded an Indonesian Military (TNI) compound after soldiers confiscate

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – Scores of young people vandalized a shariah police office and injured a religious police officer in the early hours of Tuesday morning after the Islamic autho

Dessy Sagita – Rights activists are demanding the central government re-evaluate the implementation of shariah law in Aceh following a string of violations committed by the province's m

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – Detectives with the Banda Aceh Police have arrested and detained the head of the province's shariah police on suspicion of embezzlement, an officer said on Fr

Index: ASA 21/0332013

Aceh/Jijiem – Joining a rebellion is not a typical career move. Yet up to 26,000 people in Indonesia spent years working for a separatist rebellion that lasted nearly 30 years in Aceh.

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – A Shariah Police officer was arrested Saturday night for allegedly attempting to supply hashish to a prisoner at West Aceh's Meulaboh penitentiary while offic

Indonesia – A bomb exploded at the offices of local tabloid Modus in Banda Aceh on Saturday morning, but no injuries have been reported.

Jakarta – The Health Ministry is supporting the move by local administrations – including Sabang city in Aceh – to make it a requirement for high school students to record the shape and

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – Parents in Aceh were demanding answers from education officials on Wednesday after it emerged that children as young as 11 were told to fill in a survey that

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – Residents of the Karang Anyar village in Langsa denied reports that a drunken mob had beaten Shariah police as they tried to disperse a live music performance

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – Several Shariah police officers were injured in the early hours of Monday morning after more than a hundred youths attacked them while they were trying to dis

A recent report by the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) alleges "gross human rights violations" by the Indonesian Military during its 30-year campaign against the separa