Nani Afrida, Banda Aceh – A group of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) has condemned the central government for its failure to involve the public in drafting a master plan to rebuild Banda Aceh.

Chris Brummitt, Banda Aceh – With the birth of her first child just one month away, Wadiana Wahab worries about the world her baby will enter.

Irwan Firdaus, Banda Aceh – An Indonesian anti-corruption activist detained on allegations of stealing aid in the tsunami-ravaged province of Aceh was hospitalized Friday after complaining of injuries sustained while in police custody.

Jakarta – The Indonesian Military (TNI) Army headquarters (HQ) is to deploy 40 company units, amounting to around 6,000 personnel, in Aceh in order to carry out the program of "TNI Building Villages."

Their assignment there is to open areas that are difficult to reach," said Army chief of staff General Ryamizard Ryacudu

Jakarta – A prominent human rights group in Aceh on Friday criticized Finnish mediator Martti Ahtisaari for allegedly backing the Indonesian government's side and its proposal to resolve the decades-long independence struggle.

Urip Hudiono and Fadli, Banda Aceh – With the emergency relief stage in Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam officially declared to have ended, the government will now commence with rehabilitation and reconstruction efforts in the tsunami-stricken province, which includes the establishment of relocation barracks for refugees.

Katherine Arie – Just weeks after the December 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami left over 230,000 people dead or missing in Indonesia's Aceh province, a decades-old conflict between government forces and Acehnese separatists flared up once again.

Letta Tayler, Bukit Barisan mountain range – The armed rebels huddled in the drizzle in their remote mountain hideout, a cluster of bamboo platforms and tattered tarps in a mosquito-infested jungle.

Under a makeshift canopy, two fighters who had been ambushed by the Indonesian army a few days earlier fretted that they had no fresh bandages for their gunshot wounds.

Indonesia's vice president said he believed the current talks with Aceh separatist leaders will bring an end to decades of armed conflict in Indonesia's tsunami-hit province, a report said.

Andreas Harsono, Banda Aceh – The Indonesian Red Crescent – claiming there is an oversupply of "do-gooders" who "do not speak the language" – has said it wants all foreign doctors helping the Indian Ocean tsunami survivors in Aceh to leave and hand over their emergency medical functions to local doctors instead.

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, Jakarta – The government should offer a power-sharing arrangement to the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) in governing oil and gas-rich Aceh as part of an effort to end the decades-long conflict in the province, a number of experts have said.

Mark Forbes, Banda Aceh – There are growing concerns that the Indonesian Government's plans to hastily relocate about 60,000 tsunami victims into 36 supervised barracks could spark outbreaks of disease.

Max Lane – "The death toll in Aceh from the tsunami is closer to 300,000 people", Thamrin Ananda, chairperson of the Aceh People's Democratic Struggle Front (FPDRA), told Green Left Weekly by phone from Jakarta on January 27.

Nani Afrida and Apriadi Gunawan, Banda Aceh/Medan – Prominent Aceh figures and scholars appeared lukewarm on Tuesday about the recent peace talks between the Indonesian government and the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) in Helsinki, saying that the talks were "elitist".

Most Americans know little about the Indonesian province of Aceh. In fact, before the earth's crust shook and the sea turned homicidal-killing somewhere between 166,000 and 220,000 in Aceh alone-it is fair to guess many Americans had never even heard of Aceh. But they should have.

Jakarta – Army chief Ryamrizard Ryacudu says that the TNI (armed forces) will continue to take a defensive position with regard to the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) in spite of the fact that negotiations between GAM and the Indonesian government in Helsinki Finland have failed to produce an agreement.

Fedhly Averouss Bey, Jakarta – Army chief General Ryamizard Ryacudu says that a resolution to the conflict between the Republic of Indonesia and the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) doesn't really need to be achieved through negotiations or a cease-fire. The only way that the conflict will end is if GAM surrenders to the TNI (armed forces).

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, Jakarta – While other regions across the country are gearing up to hold the first direct regional elections in June, five regencies in Aceh will have to postpone the event following the tsunami disaster.

Jakarta – Tsunami-stricken areas in Indonesia were in need of more medical supplies rather than additional medical workers due to the declining number of patients and the already excessive number of medical workers, a senior aid official said on Monday.

Tiarma Siboro and Muninggar Sri Saraswati, Jakarta – Plans to hold further peace talks between the government and the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) look likely to stalemate as both parties cannot agree on the final goal of the dialog.

Jakarta – Indonesia on Tuesday rejected an offer by Acehnese rebels to put their independence claims on hold in return for an eventual referendum on the issue, but mediators were optimistic that coming peace talks could be fruitful.

Acehnese rebels have said they are willing to put their demand for secession on hold if Indonesia accepts a "face-saving" formula that would allow the tsunami-hit province to hold an independence referendum within five to 10 years.

Jakarta – Negotiators from the Indonesian government and the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) wound up two days of talks in Helsinki on Saturday without a concrete result on how to end the decades-long war in Aceh, but pledged to meet again soon to seek a peace deal.

Jerry Norton and Jim Loney, Jakarta – Talks to end a decades-long conflict in Indonesia's tsunami-stricken Aceh province could be on a fast track to nowhere unless there are changes in positions and negotiating approaches, analysts said on Monday.

Jakarta – The Aceh military authorities have detained an army officer for questioning after he allegedly assaulted an anticorruption activist accused of stealing relief aid from the air force base in Banda Aceh.

Shirley Shackleton – I have studied the TNI (the Indonesian military) for 30 years and what is happening in Aceh has striking similarities to what happened in East Timor. The TNI terrorised the East Timorese for a quarter of a century and they have done the same to Acehnese citizens for 31 years.

M. Taufiqurrahman, Jakarta – Deep mistrust among local non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and foreign aid agencies of the government-sanctioned National Relief Committee is to blame for the chaotic nature of the relief operation on the west coast of Aceh, a prominent activist says.

Banda Aceh – A lawyer Saturday demanded the release of an anti-corruption activist who was allegedly beaten while in detention after being accused of stealing aid in the tsunami-hit Aceh province.

The Pentagon and the Indonesian government are using the tragic tsunami that struck Aceh to call for US support including weapons and training – for Indonesia's brutal military.

M. Taufiqurrahman and Muninggar Sri Saraswati, Jakarta – The government admitted on Thursday that the management of public donations for the tsunami survivors in Aceh and North Sumatra had been tainted by malfeasance.

Bill Guerin, Jakarta – Tsunami-devastated Aceh, which only a month ago was a war zone, has now become the testing ground for a concerted push to persuade the separatist Free Aceh Movement (GAM), which has been fighting for independence, to lay down its arms.

Jakarta – The House of Representatives' Commission II for home and regional affairs has recommended the government delay the direct elections of local executive heads in tsunami-ravaged Aceh.

Commission member Abdul Gafur said on Thursday the proposed delay be imposed until the conditions improved in Aceh.

Wellington – New Zealand said on Thursday it will ask Indonesia to investigate claims that its military officers have been accepting bribes to place wealthy people on refugee flights out of tsunami-ravaged Aceh.

Jakarta – Indonesia's president on Thursday offered concessions to separatist rebels in tsunami-devastated Aceh province if they agree to a cease-fire in upcoming peace talks.

Nani Afrida and Dedy Ardiansyah, Banda Aceh/Meulaboh – As the sun rose over the devastated city of Banda Aceh on Wednesday morning, Maizul, a 40-year-old school teacher, was standing in front of a classroom at one of the city's schools.

Banda Aceh – Indonesia has buried more than 100,000 tsunami victims, mostly in mass graves, a month after the disaster, the government said on Thursday.

Alan Sipress, Lhoknga – Ali, a scruffy Acehnese truck driver turned tsunami refugee, said he wasn't sure who provided him with a sack of rice, bottled water, a blanket and a few other meager provisions, just that they were foreigners.

Tony Hotland and Ruslan Sangadji, Banda Aceh – The Acehnese have long dreamed of peace and prosperity in their homeland, which has seen decades of conflict and, at the end of last year, tsunamis that left more than 166,000 people killed or missing and presumed dead.

Meidyatama Suryodiningrat and Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta – The wheels of diplomacy and bureaucracy are notoriously slow. Apparently not so in the case of this weekend's peace talks between the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) and the government, in Helsinki.

An Indonesian ministerial team departs for Finland today to meet Free Aceh Movement or GAM's leadership-in-exile, but though both sides expressed optimism, there is scant hope the talks would end decades of conflict in the province.

Tiarma Siboro and Rendi A. Witular, Jakarta – The government and the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) are ready to resume peace talks in Helsinki later this week, with both sides planning to send high-level officials, according to people familiar with the talks.

Many seats were left empty in badly damaged schools across Indonesia's Aceh province as children began lessons for the first time since the tsunami struck one month ago, killing thousands of their classmates.

Santi Soekanto, Aceh – Nina recounted her story to me in the Lamsujen refugee camp in Lhoong subdistrict, Aceh Besar, on January 3. This is what she said: "Assalam mualai'kum. My name is Nina Maulidia Rizka. Call me Nina. I am now 11 years old. I was born in a beautiful village, called Gleebruek, in the sub-district Lhoong, Aceh Besar District.

Sonny Inbaraj, Bangkok – East Timor's Nobel laureate Bishop Carlos Ximenes Belo is appealing for peace to be given a chance in tsunami-hit Aceh as an Indonesian top-level team meets with Acehnese rebels later this week at talks in Finland.

Meulaboh – The two-faced attitude of United States troops in the province of Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam (NAD) in the wake of the earthquake and tsunami has been revealed. Apart from carrying out humanitarian missions, the troops from the US have been caught out providing logistical aid to the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) in Calang, the capital of Aceh Jaya District.

Jakarta – International financial institutions paid about $35 million in the late 1980s to build the highway that meanders from Jakarta's international airport to the city, crossing picturesque rice paddies and fish ponds.

Jakarta – The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Monday that health conditions in the disaster area of Aceh were improving, and that no major epidemics were likely, but all parties involved in medical relief should remain alert to possible outbreaks.

M. Taufiqurrahman, Jakarta – Both the Indonesian government and the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) must capitalize on the outpouring of sympathy for the Acehnese in the post-tsunami aftermath to reach a peaceful solution to the protracted conflict, a former government negotiator said.

Jakarta – Almost half a million Acehnese may suffer depression, anxiety and sleep disorders due to last month's tsunami disaster, but only five psychiatrists are on hand to treat them, the World Health Organization said Tuesday.

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta – The government said on Monday it would use some unconventional methods to cope with post-tsunami legal issues related to citizen documentation as well as for banking and court systems in Aceh and North Sumatra.