Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – A human rights activist on Thursday slammed the humiliating punishment meted out to a teacher in Aceh Barat and the married woman he was suspected of having a

Nurdin Hassan and AFP, Banda Aceh – A powerful 7.8-magnitude earthquake hit Sumatra island early Wednesday, injuring at least four people, one of them critically, in Simeulue district,

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – An activist from a leading Indonesian rights group on Wednesday called for a comprehensive investigation into the recent finding of sacks full of bones in an

Hotli Simanjuntak and Dicky Christanto, Aceh, Jakarta – The government's campaign against terrorist groups in Aceh escalated this week with a police officer and another civilian losing

Nurdin Hasan & Farouk Arnaz, Aceh – The ongoing police paramilitary operations here against suspected militants have claimed another civilian life as the number of suspects charged

Farouk Arnaz – The National Police and Aceh Police conducted raids and arrested more suspects who were allegedly involved with a terrorist network that held a military training camp in

Nurdin Hasan – Two prominent rights groups in Aceh on Wednesday called for police to end their military-like operations against an armed group allegedly linked to the Jemaah Islamiyah r

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – Kamaruddin approached his wife and told her that he would go out and try to catch fish for their next meal.

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – A security analyst on Monday questioned claims that four men recently arrested in Aceh were linked to the regional terrorist group Jemaah Islamiyah.

Terrorism commentators are divided over the recent arrest of terror suspects in Aceh, with one saying the suspects were linked to Noordin M.

Nurdin Hasan & Farouk Arnaz – Terrorism expert Sidney Jones said on Friday that four suspects arrested during recent police operations in the Jalin Jantho region of Aceh Besar may b

Tom Allard, Jakarta – Indonesian police have launched a manhunt for up to 50 members of a suspected terrorist group in Aceh amid reports that an Afghan national is among those who fled

Heru Andriyanto & Nurdin Hasan – Aceh offers many advantages as a safe haven for Jemaah Islamiyah to regroup, experts and sources said on Wednesday, following the arrests of four su

Kathy Marks, Banda Aceh – "Excuse me," says Iskandar, as his mobile phone beeps for the umpteenth time in the past half hour.

Hotli Simanjuntak, Banda Aceh – Participants were met with applause, but also taunts when they stepped on the catwalk during a Miss Transvestite Aceh pageant on Saturday evening.

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – In their best Acehese costumes, kitsch jewelry and towering hair buns, 40 transsexuals sashayed down a stage on Saturday to loud club music, disco lights and

Adi Warsidi, Jakarta – Thousands of female protesters took to the streets in Aceh Province on Monday (8/2) to demand the release of remaining political prisoners in government prisons,

Nurdin Hasan – Aceh still remembers Tjut Nya Dien, one in a long tradition of heroes who tirelessly fought against the Dutch.

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – Two human rights activists said on Sunday that the implementation of Shariah law in Aceh was unfair and discriminatory, as it only applied to the common peopl

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – Women's tight trousers and men's short pants have become the focus of Aceh's Shariah Police, who have intensified their patrols to get the shameful articles o

Hotli Simanjuntak, Banda Aceh – A signboard on Jl.

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – Students in the West Aceh capital of Meulaboh have ended a five-day hunger strike to demand housing for survivors of the 2004 tsunami after several of the str

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – Zulkifli Zainon, the mayor of Langsa city in Aceh, officially dismissed the chief of the local Shariah Police, Syahril, on Wednesday over allegations that thr

Hotli Simanjuntak, Banda Aceh – A group of sharia police personnel unusually just sit in the back of a pick-up patrol vehicle while making the rounds in downtown Banda Aceh, Aceh provin

Hotli Simanjuntak, Banda Aceh – Growing up, Faisal was not really aware that he had a different sexual orientation from his friends, but as an adult he is very conscious of his sexualit

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – Aceh's deputy governor said on Tuesday that there was no need to disband the province's Wilayatul Hisbah, or Shariah Police, because there was no legal obliga

Karima Anjani and John M.

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – - Shariah Police officers who are suspects in Friday's alleged gang rape of a 20-year-old university student may find some respite from knowing they will be c

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – Having gang-raped and tortured a female student at the Langsa Shariah Police station in Aceh, the three officers responsible have forever blackened the name o

Hotli Simanjuntak, Banda Aceh – A serious blow to the credibility and morality of sharia police in Aceh province, has occurred after several members were detained for an alleged gang ra

Hundreds of tsunami refugees in Aceh province held a rally in front of West Aceh's Regional Representative Council Building on Monday to demand homes that they said the government had p

Stephen Fitzpatrick, Jakarta – Here's a provocative thought: if it weren't for the 2004 tsunami, Western aid workers in Banda Aceh city would not be the target of politically motivated

Jerome Rivet, Banda Aceh – She wears a helmet and drives her scooter slowly through the capital of Indonesia's Aceh province, but Yuli is still stopped by the sharia police.

On Boxing Day 2004, a tsunami killed more than 220,000 people. Five years on, Tim Hume returns to Indonesia and witnesses a remarkable recovery.

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – Today, the people of Aceh commemorate the most tragic day in our history with prayers, memories and visits to the mass graves that hold the unidentified remai

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – Aceh's Religious Affairs Office has moved to distance itself from its controversial decision to prevent the barongsai, or Chinese lion dance, from being perfo

Nurdin Hasan, Anita Rachman & Putri Prameshwari, Banda Aceh – Religious officials in Aceh have sparked yet another controversy, this time banning the barongsai, or traditional Chine

Lampuk (Indonesia) – Ikra Alfila has rediscovered the joy of play, but the little 10-year-old still has nightmares about giant waves five years after the tsunami that killed everyone in

Teuku Dani Ramadhan, Zahara Sulaiman & Ade Mardiyati – In Pasar Rakyat, a market in Meulaboh in Indonesia's West Aceh, a young woman busily browses through a rack of skirts.

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – Activists in Aceh on Friday criticized the lack of civil involvement in the autonomous region when they met with Martti Ahtisaari, the diplomat who brokered t

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – Former rebels of the Free Aceh Movement celebrated the 33rd anniversary of the founding of their now-disbanded organization by holding mass prayers and provid

Hotli Simanjuntak, Banda Aceh – Foreign citizens have yet again become the target of terror attacks in Aceh, this time against two American citizens staying in a house at the Syiah Kual

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – Aceh's controversial Qanun Jinayat code, which allows stoning to death for adulterers, would be difficult to implement because it was open to interpretation,

The equivalent of about 10,000 football fields of forest have been lost each year for the past five years in Aceh's Leuser ecosystem due to illegal logging and the clearing of land for

Ref: TG ASA 21/2009/44. AI Index: ASA 21/021/2009

Gamawan Fauzi
Home Affairs Minister
Jl. Medan Merdeka Utara No. 7.
Jakarta Pusat
Indonesia

Bachtiar Effendy, Jakarta – It seems almost natural that the Aceh legislature has passed a bill on adultery based on Islamic sharia – which derives from the Koran and Sunnah (traditions

Banda Aceh – Officials say a German working for the Red Cross has been shot by men on a motorcycle in Indonesia's Aceh province.

Camelia Pasandaran – Fourteen civil society groups on Thursday condemned Aceh's stoning bylaw, the Qanun Jinayat code, saying that most Acehnese were not in favor of it but that critics

Hotli Simanjuntak, Banda Aceh – The sharia regulation prohibiting women from wearing pants in West Aceh regency drew strong condemnation from public circles in Aceh province.

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – The local bylaw calling for adulterers to be stoned to death cannot be implemented because lawmakers who passed the regulation did not act with the blessings