Thousands of Indonesian troops have begun withdrawing from Aceh province in the last phase of a peace plan agreed with the rebels. The pullout was finalised after the Free Aceh Movement surrendered their final batch of weapons, fulfilling the terms of the pact reached in August.

Presenter/Interviewer: Marion Macgregor

Marcus Tanner, Banda Aceh – There can't be many guerrilla leaders with escape stories like Yusuf Irwandi's. One of several hundred separatist fighters in the province of Aceh jailed by the Indonesian military, his nine-year sentence came to an abrupt end at 8am on 26 December last year, when the tsunami washed away his prison.

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. The troops were among the last due to leave Aceh during the final phase of military withdrawals called for under an August peace pact signed with the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) in Helsinki.

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 March, for another three months in a bid to help ensure a lasting peace in the province.

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 foreign monitor said.

A. Junaidi – Acehnese writer Riati M.K. has launched on Wednesday her first novel, Seulanga Gelora Cinta di Tengah Perjuangan Aceh (Seulanga: Glory of love amid Aceh's struggle), which tells a tale of a woman named Seulanga as she searches for her parents' murderers during the armed conflict in Aceh.

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 the tsunami-hit province.

Kuntoro Mangkusubroto said the GAM representative on the BRR, Tengku Kamaruzzaman, played a major role in helping the agency carry out its work.

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) in Aceh that is planned to end in March 2006.

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 peace in the resource-rich province, which for three decades had been wracked by bloody armed conflict.

Hera Diani, Jakarta – Despite a slow start, progress has been made in tsunami-ravaged Aceh, with the pace of reconstruction picking up. The 65,000 people still living in tents should be residing in decent housing by the end of 2006, officials said on Thursday.

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 Government for Aceh.

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's national capacity.

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 says.

Andrew Steele, Jakarta – The wagons are already circling. In just over one month, swarms of journalists and humanitarian icons spanning from U2's Bono to former US President Bill Clinton will descend on Aceh to take stock of the recovery and reconstruction efforts that have occurred in the wake of last December's tsunami.

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 in the tsunami-ravaged province, lawmakers have said.

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 with the Free Aceh Movement (GAM), GAM leaders and Acehnese scholars warned on Thursday.

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 agreement that has put an end to three decades of armed conflict there.

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 carriers or trucks wrapped in crude armour plating and bearing sinister insignia.

"No one went out after dark," says Taufik Iskandar, a maths lecturer at the city's Syah Kuala University.

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 until the end of November.

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 poise.

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

"We're just expressing our gratitude that peace is being upheld in Aceh," the GAM commander in Aceh Besar regency, Muharram, told The Jakarta Post.

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 to abort the ceremony.

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

"Marijuana use has become much more prevalent since the tsunami," says David Gordon, director of Yakita, Indonesia's largest drug rehabilitation agency. "Kids are starting to use ganja from a younger age and on a more regular basis."

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 promoting peace in the province.

Nani Afrida, Banda Aceh – Large crowds gathered on Friday in Banda Aceh and Pidie to watch tsunami survivors publicly caned for gambling.

It was the eighth time this year convicted gamblers have been publicly caned in Aceh, under the sharia law implemented in the province two years ago. The first public caning took place in Bireuen regency in June this year.

John Aglionby, Nusa – The community noticeboard in Nusa is conspicuously underemployed. There are no updates on reconstruction programmes and the only bulletin on livelihood is a dog-eared one from June. The only recent notice advertises monthly distribution of rice, cooking oil, noodles and sardines to those who lost their homes in December's tsunami.

Ridwan Max Sijabat, Jakarta – Despite the Aug. 15 peace pact that is helping to restore security in the once-restive Aceh, Acehnese devotion to the unitary state of Indonesia remains low, according to a survey.

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, Jakarta – The former Aceh rebels will be free to celebrate the anniversary of their movement on Sunday as long as it does not rekindle separatism, the government says.

Medan/Jakarta – The Indonesian Military (TNI) has warned former Aceh combatants against celebrating the anniversary of their organization, saying it would not be in accordance with the spirit of the peace agreement they signed in August.

Apriadi Gunawan, Medan – An international aid agency helping tsunami victims in Aceh has temporarily shut down operations after a group of youths ransacked its Medan office on Wednesday because they had not won an aid contract.

Nani Afrida, Banda Aceh – Antigraft activists have criticized members of the Aceh and Nias Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Agency (BRR) as "overpaid and underachieving".

Ilyas, Langsa – Because the normative and other rights employees have not been accommodated by the leadership board of the Langsa City branch of the All Indonesia Workers Union (SPSI), scores of Langsa SPSI members held a demonstration and issued a motion of no confidence in the SPSI leadership.

Jakarta – Former rebels in Indonesia's Aceh province successfully ended the third round of a weapons handover on Tuesday after struggling to surrender enough arms that met the criteria of international peace monitors.

Imran MA, Eastern Aceh – On Monday November 21, Muhammad Nurdin (43), a resident of the Buket Paka village who has been a member of the Rantau Peureulak sub-district Red White Militia (Laskar Merah Putih, LMP) in Eastern Aceh, surrendered a hand grenade to a former member of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) for the Peureulak region.

Lhokseumawe – Indonesia pulled out more than 2,000 troops from Aceh province Saturday after the rebels handed over weapons as part of a peace deal to end 29 years of fighting, the province's military chief said.

Ridwan Max Sijabat, Jakarta – The Aceh provincial legislative council has completed drafting a new bill on the governing of Aceh, which would allow former rebels to set up local political parties that could participate in next year's election of top local administration officials.

Jakarta – Indonesian Military chief Gen. Endriartono Sutarto would welcome the possible return of Hassan Tiro, the self-exiled leader of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM), to the province.

Alisa P, Banda Aceh – The composition of the draft law on the organisation of a government for Aceh as mandated by the memorandum of understanding (MoU) between the Indonesian government and the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) should not be a revision of the special autonomy law (Otsus) or Law Number 18/2001.

Nani Afrida, Banda Aceh – Khairil Anwar acknowledged he felt depressed. The head of Lamdingin village in Lambaro Skep district in Banda Aceh is under pressure from village residents desperately in need of houses.

"They are tired of living in tents for displaced persons and asked me to find new funding sources to build them houses," Khairil told The Jakarta Post.

Sian Powell, Mon Ikeun – It is damp, crowded and hot – a tatty canvas tent surrounded by mud and puddles and home to four adult Acehnese sisters and two children.

Nani Afrida, Banda Aceh – Many still living in tents, the Acehnese celebrated their first Idul Fitri almost a year after the tsunami devastated Aceh and parts of North Sumatra.

The time was also a time for many to quietly remember the loved ones, relatives and friends not present at festivities this year.

[The following Aceh backgrounder was prepared by the Australian solidarity organisation Asia Pacific Solidarity Network (APSN) to provide an background to the three-decade conflict in Aceh and on recent developments in the peace process following the December 26 2004 tsunami and earthquake.]

Repression and resistance

John Aglionby, Nusa – The community notice board in Nusa is conspicuously underemployed. There are no updates on reconstruction programmes and the only bulletin on livelihood is a dog-eared one from June. The only recent notice advertises monthly distribution of rice, cooking oil, noodles and sardines to those who lost their homes in December's tsunami.

Bill Tarrant, Lampuuk – In a little shack they built on a rubble-strewn field where the tsunami travelled the farthest inland, a group of teenaged boys orphaned in the disaster have made themselves a family.

Peter Fritsch, Banda Aceh – The tsunami story of fisherman Zamzami is sadly familiar: A black wave taller than the coastal coconut trees swallowed his home, his wife and five of his six children, none ever to be seen again.

Banda Aceh – The Indonesian Military (TNI) hailed on Tuesday the return of a top leader of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM), Bakhtiar Abdullah, to his homeland.

Ridwan Max Sijabat, Jakarta – Ten months after the devastating tsunami that claimed more than 210,000 human lives and displaced hundreds of thousands of others last December, the public living in Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam is still in trouble.

Nani Afrida, Banda Aceh – In another positive sign for the peace process in Aceh, a top leader of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) arrived in his homeland on Monday after 25 years in exile overseas after a peace deal succeeded in ending nearly three decades of conflict in the province.

Nani Afrida, Banda Aceh – Observed by a crowd of hundreds, six convicted gamblers were caned on Monday in front of the Baitul Musyahadah Mosque here.

The public canings were the second such event in Banda Aceh and the seventh in the province, all of which were carried out as punishment for gambling. The first public canings took place in Bireuen regency in June this year.

Nani Afrida, Banda Aceh – The Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Agency for Aceh and Nias (BRR) has lashed out at the Ministry of Finance for lacking a sense of crisis in delaying without clear reason several critical enabling regulations that would allow reconstruction work to proceed.