Aceh, formerly Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam, is the northernmost and westernmost province-level division of Indonesia. It is located at the tip of Sumatra, with Banda Aceh being its capital and largest city. Granted a special autonomous status, Aceh is a religiously conservative territory and the only Indonesian province practicing Sharia officially. There are ten indigenous ethnic groups in this region, the largest being the Acehnese people, accounting for approximately 80% to 90% of the region's population. Due to strict religious practices including flogging, despite among Indonesia's highest birthrates, population outflow is common, particularly out of Banda Aceh itself.
The Free Aceh Movement was a separatist group seeking independence for the Aceh region of Sumatra, Indonesia. GAM fought against Indonesian government forces in the Aceh insurgency from 1976 to 2005, during which over 15,000 lives are believed to have been lost.
The Aceh Monitoring Mission (AMM) was deployed by the European Union after the "Memorandum of Understanding between the Government of the Republic of Indonesia and the Free Aceh Movement" had been signed on 15 August 2005 in Helsinki, Finland. The AMM is one of many missions under the EU's Common Security and Defence Policy.
Hasan Muhammad di Tiro, M.S, M.A, LL.D, Ph.D., born Hasan Bin Leube Muhammad, was the founder of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM), an organisation which attempted to separate Aceh from Indonesia from the 1970s. It surrendered its separatist goals and agreed to disarm as agreed to in the Helsinki peace deal of 2005. He was the maternal great-grandson of Tengku Cik di Tiro, an Indonesian national hero who was killed fighting the Dutch in 1891. In 2010 he obtained his Indonesian citizenship back shortly before his death.
Regional elections were held in Aceh on 11 December 2006 after a peace agreement had been signed between the government of Indonesia and the Free Aceh Movement on 15 August 2005, ending the Insurgency in Aceh.
Irwandi Yusuf is an Indonesian politician who was the Governor of Aceh. He was re-elected Governor in early 2017 after serving an earlier term between 2006 and 2012.
Muhammad Nazar, S.Ag., is the former deputy governor of the province of Aceh, Indonesia He held office during 2007-2012 having been elected in the 2006 Acehnese regional elections along with Irwandi Yusuf who was elected governor.
Pidie Regency is a regency of Aceh Special region, in Indonesia. It is located in the north of the island of Sumatra, in Western Indonesia, bordered by the Malacca Strait and Pidie Jaya Regency in the north, Aceh Besar Regency in the west, Bireuen Regency in the northeast, and Aceh Jaya Regency in the south. The regency covers an area of 3,184.45 square kilometres and had a population of 379,108 people at the 2010 Census and 435,275 at the 2020 Census. Pidie was the largest rice-producing area of Aceh province, producing some 20% of its total output.
The insurgency in Aceh, officially designated the Rebellion in Aceh by the Indonesian government, was a conflict fought by the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) between 1976 and 2005, with the goal of making the province of Aceh independent from Indonesia. The aftermath of a strong military offensive in 2003 and the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake brought a peace agreement and an end to the insurgency.
The Aceh Party is a regional political party in Indonesia. It contested the 2009 elections in the province of Aceh, and is the largest party in the Aceh provincial legislature.
Mustafa Abubakar is an Indonesian politician and formerly governor of the province of Aceh. Mustafa was appointed as the State Minister for State Enterprises in the Second United Indonesia Cabinet, which was announced on 21 October 2009 following the re-election of Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. Mustafa was brought into the cabinet after reforming the Indonesian Bureau of Logistics (Bulog), whose previous Chairman, Widjanarko Puspoyo, had been involved in a corruption scandal.
The 2003 Aceh New Year's Eve bombing was a terrorist attack that occurred on 31 December 2003 in Peureulak, Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam province, Indonesia. The bombing, which occurred during a concert at a night market, killed at least 10 people, including three children, and wounded 45 others
Hajji Azwar Abubakar is the former Administrative Reform Minister of Indonesia.
Zaini Abdullah, a medical doctor by profession, is a former separatist activist of the Free Aceh Movement in Indonesia who was elected as the governor of the province of Aceh in the 2012 election for a five-year period from 2012 to 2017. Elected with 56% of the vote, Zaini Abdullah is the second governor directly chosen by the electors of Aceh since the granting of restricted autonomy to the area by the Indonesian government in 2005. His predecessor Irwandi Yusuf, who was elected in 2006 for the period from 2007 to 2012, was the first governor chosen in the province by direct elections.
The province of Aceh in Indonesia enforces some provisions of Islamic criminal law, the sole Indonesian province to do so. In Aceh, Islamic criminal law is called jinayat. The laws that implement it are called Qanun Jinayat or Hukum Jinayat, roughly meaning "Islamic criminal code". Although the largely-secular laws of Indonesia apply in Aceh, the provincial government passed additional regulations, some derived from Islamic criminal law, after Indonesia authorized its provinces to enact regional regulations (perda) and granted Aceh special autonomy to implement Islamic law. Offences under the provisions include alcohol consumption, production and distribution, gambling, adultery, rape, sexual harassment, certain intimacies outside marriage, and certain homosexual acts. Punishments include caning, fines, and imprisonment. There is no provision for stoning; an attempt to introduce it in 2009 was vetoed by Governor Irwandi Yusuf. In 2016 Aceh processed 324 first instance court cases under Islamic criminal law, and carried out at least 100 caning sentences.
Muzakir Manaf, popularly known as Mualem, is an Indonesian politician and former Free Aceh Movement (GAM) guerilla fighter who served as the vice governor of Aceh between 2012 and 2017. Leading the movement's guerilla wing following the death of his predecessor, he was its leader at the end of the conflict and later founded the Aceh Party, becoming its first and current chairman.
Nurdin bin Ismail Amat, better known as Din Minimi, is a former militant of Free Aceh Movement who led an armed band based in Aceh during the 2010s.
Soedarmo was an Indonesian military officer and bureaucrat who became the Director General of Politics and General Government. Due to his office in the Ministry of Home Affairs, he held acting governorships in Aceh and Papua.
