Aceh

Sultanate and holdout

Aceh is the northern end of Sumatra, mostly mountains covered in rainforest, with Mount Leuser rising to 3,381 m. The Acehnese, a Malay people who are devout Muslims, live in the lowlands; the Gayo live in the highlands.^[1]

In the 13th century Aceh became the first Muslim stronghold in the Indonesian archipelago. Its sultanate was at its height under Iskandar Muda (1607–36), when it fought the Portuguese at Malacca.^[1] In 1873 the Dutch set out to conquer it. The Aceh War lasted more than 25 years; the sultan surrendered in 1903, but the Dutch never fully pacified the region.^[1]

Rebellion against Indonesia

Aceh became an autonomous province in 1949 but was merged into North Sumatra in 1950. Open rebellion broke out in 1953, and making Aceh a special district equal to a province in 1956 did not end it.^[1] In the 1970s resistance grew again under the Free Aceh Movement (GAM), and from 1990 there were periods of war between the separatists and Indonesian forces.^[1]

Special status in 1999 and special autonomy in 2001 gave Aceh, alone among Indonesia’s regions, the power to apply sharia law. It is widely seen as a concession meant to weaken the insurgency.^[3] In 2002 the province took the name Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam.^[1]

Tsunami and peace

The Indian Ocean tsunami of December 2004 struck Aceh, heavily damaging its main ports.^[1] Eight months later, on 15 August 2005, Indonesia’s government and GAM signed a peace agreement in Helsinki.^[3][2] GAM agreed to hand over 840 weapons by the end of 2005, and Indonesia agreed to pull out its extra troops and police at the same time, watched by an Aceh Monitoring Mission.^[2]

Under the agreement Aceh would run all public affairs except foreign affairs, external defence, national security, monetary and fiscal matters, justice and freedom of religion. It could keep 70% of the revenue from its oil, gas and other resources, use its own flag, crest and hymn, and form local political parties.^[2] Its borders were fixed as they stood on 1 July 1956.^[2]

A Law on the Governing of Aceh put this into effect in 2006. In the elections of 11 December 2006 the former GAM leader Irwandi Yusuf became governor, and GAM founded a party of its own, the Aceh Party.^[4]

“Aceh is entitled to retain seventy (70) per cent of the revenues from all current and future hydrocarbon deposits and other natural resources in the territory of Aceh as well as in the territorial sea surrounding Aceh.”^[2]

Sharia

Aceh passed its first sharia bylaws in 2003, against alcohol, gambling and khalwat (unmarried couples being alone together), and set up sharia courts and a sharia police.^[3] GAM’s leaders had rejected formal sharia, saying their fight was political rather than religious, and accepted it only after the Helsinki agreement.^[3]

A 2009 criminal code allowed stoning for adultery; its 2014 replacement dropped stoning but made adultery and gay sex punishable by up to 100 lashes. By 2018 at least five non-Muslims had been caned under it, and human rights activists say non-Muslims are pressured to accept sharia courts.^[3]