Indonesia said it was checking for damage and casualties but remarkably, no such reports had been received for several hours after the quakes, including in Aceh, the closest province and the area decimated by the disaster eight years ago.

However, some areas close to the epicentre are remote so it could take some time to find out if there was any damage.

Many people were frightened of further tremors.

“It’s dark out here but I am scared to go home,” said Mila, a 41-year-old woman taking refuge in the grand mosque in the town of Banda Aceh, the provincial capital.

“I just want to stay alert because I fear there will be more quakes coming. We are human, it is only natural that we have fear, but I really wish we will all be safe.”

Waves of up to one metre (3.3 feet) high were seen near islands off Aceh, but Indonesia cancelled a warning for fresh tsunamis. It said the worst-hit area was the thinly populated island of Simeulue, off Aceh’s southern coast.

The first quake struck at 0838 GMT and an 8.2 magnitude aftershock just over two hours later, at 1043 GMT. Two more strong aftershocks hit later.

The Hawaii-based Pacific Tsunami Warning Center also withdrew tsunami warnings for the entire Indian Ocean after keeping them in force for several hours.

“Level readings now indicate that the threat has diminished or is over for most areas,” the agency’s bulletin said.

Thailand and India also withdrew tsunami warnings.

Thailand, Indonesia, Sri Lanka and India were all badly hit in 2004. At least 230,000 people in 13 Indian Ocean countries were killed in the Boxing Day disaster that year, including 170,000 in and around Aceh alone.

Last year, an earthquake and tsunami off Japan’s north-eastern coast killed at least 23,000 people and triggered the world’s worst nuclear crisis in 25 years after waves battered a nuclear power station.

On Wednesday, people near the coast in six Thai provinces were ordered to move to higher ground. Authorities shut down the international airport in the Thai beach resort province of Phuket.

The quakes were about 300 miles (500 km) southwest of Banda Aceh, on the northern tip of Indonesia’s Sumatra island, the U.S. Geological survey said. The first was at a depth of 20.5 miles (33 km).

Indonesia’s disaster management agency said power failed in Aceh province and people were gathering on high ground as sirens warned of the danger.

“The electricity is down, there are traffic jams to access higher ground. Sirens and Koran recitals from mosques are everywhere,” said Sutopo, spokesman for the agency.

“The warning system worked,” Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said.

Warning sirens also rang out across the Thai island of Phuket, a tourist hotspot that was one of the worst hit areas in the 2004 tsunami.

“Guests from expensive hotels overlooking Phuket’s beaches were evacuated to the hills behind and local people were driving away in cars and on motorcycles. Everyone seemed quite calm, the warning had been issued well in advance,” freelance journalist Apichai Thonoy told Reuters by telephone.

OUT ON THE STREETS

Indonesian television showed people gathering in mosques in Banda Aceh. Many others were on the streets, holding crying children.

In the city of Medan, a hospital evacuated patients, who were wheeled out on beds and in wheelchairs.

Wednesday’s quakes were felt as far away as the Thai capital, Bangkok, and in southern India, hundreds of office workers in the city of Bangalore left their buildings while the port of Chennai closed down because of tsunami fears.

The quakes were in roughly in the same area as the 2004 quake, which was at a depth of 18 miles (30 km) along a fault line running under the Indian Ocean, off western Indonesia and up into the Bay of Bengal.

Experts said Wednesday quakes were a “strike-slip” fault, meaning a more horizontal shift of the ground under the sea as opposed to a sudden vertical shift, and less risk of a large displacement of water triggering a tsunami.

“The nature of the sideways rupture and sideways movement is not predisposed to cause a bad tsunami, so almost certainly, the crisis has been avoided,” said David Rothery, an expert at the Open University in the U.K.

The quakes were also felt in Sri Lanka, where office workers in the capital, Colombo, fled their offices.

Mahinda Amaraweera, Sri Lanka’s minister for disaster management, called for calm while advising people near the coast to seek safety.

“I urge the people not to panic. We have time if there is a tsunami going to come. So please evacuate if you are in the coastal area and move to safer places,” Amaraweera told a private television channel.

In Bangladesh, where two tremors were felt, authorities said there appeared to be no threat of a tsunami. Australia also said there was no threat of a tsunami there.

(Reporting by Jakarta, New Delhi, Bangalore, Bangkok and Colombo bureaus; Writing by Raju Gopalakrishnan; Editing by Jonathan Thatcher)

Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said there were no immediate reports of casualties or damage in Aceh, the Indonesian province closest to the earthquake.

The quake struck at 0838 GMT and the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said soon afterwards a tsunami watch was in effect for the entire Indian Ocean. It later said the threat of a big tsunami had receded, although the warning remained in place.

“It doesn’t look like a major tsunami. But we are still monitoring as tsunamis come in waves,” Victor Sardina, a geophysicist on duty at the Hawaii-based institute, told Reuters.

Individual countries, including Thailand, Indonesia, Sri Lanka and India, issued their own warnings.

People near the coast in six Thai provinces were ordered to move to higher ground and authorities shut down the international airport in the beach resort town of Phuket.

The quake struck 308 miles (500 km) southwest of the city of Banda Aceh, on the northern tip of Indonesia’s Sumatra island, at a depth of 20.5 miles (33 km), the U.S. Geological survey said.

Indonesia’s disaster management agency said power was down in Aceh province and people were gathering on high ground as sirens warned of the danger.

“The electricity is down, there are traffic jams to access higher ground. Sirens and Koran recitals from mosques are everywhere,” said Sutopo, spokesman for the agency.

But Yudhoyono said there were no signs of a disaster.

“There is no tsunami threat although we are on alert,” said he said at a joint news conference in Jakarta with visiting British Prime Minister David Cameron, who said Britain was standing ready to help if needed.

“The situation in Aceh is under control, there’s a little bit of panic but people can go to higher ground,” Yudhoyono said.

He said he had ordered a disaster relief team to fly to Aceh, which was devastated by the 9.1 magnitude 2004 quake, which sent huge tsunami waves crashing into Sumatra, where 170,000 people were killed, and across the Indian Ocean.

In all, the 2004 tsunami killed about 230,000 people in 13 Indian Ocean countries, including Thailand, Sri Lanka and India.

“HORIZONTAL SHIFT”

Wednesday’s quake was felt as far away as the Thai capital, Bangkok, and in southern India, residents said.

Hundreds of office workers in the Indian city of Bangalore left their buildings while the Indian port of Chennai closed down because of the danger of a tsunami, the port said.

The quake was in roughly in the same area as the 2004 quake which was at a depth of 18 miles (30 km) along a fault line running under the Indian Ocean, off western Indonesia and up into the Bay of Bengal.

One expert told the BBC the Wednesday quake was a “strike-slip” fault, meaning a more horizontal shift of the ground under the sea as opposed to a sudden vertical shift, and less risk of a large displacement of water triggering a tsunami.

The quake was also felt in Sri Lanka, where office workers in the capital, Colombo, fled their offices, and in Phuket, both of which were hit hard by the 2004 tsunami.

Mahinda Amaraweera, Sri Lanka’s minister for disaster management, called for calm while advising people near the coast to seek safety.

“I urge the people not to panic. We have time if there is a tsunami going to come. So please evacuate if you are in the coastal area and move to safer places,” Amaraweera told a private television channel.

In Bangladesh, where two tremors were felt, authorities said there appeared to be no threat of a tsunami. Australia also said there was no threat of a tsunami there.

(Reporting by Jakarta, Bangalore and Bangkok bureaus; Writing by Robert Birsel; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)

An exit poll by the Indonesia Circle Institute polling agency showed rebel former foreign minister Zaini Abdullah from Partai Aceh with more than 54.4 percent. Abdullah was foreign minister for former rebel group, the Free Aceh Movement (GAM).

Former Aceh governor Irwandi Yusuf got 29.9 percent of vote, the Institute said. Yusuf stepped down as governor in February when his term ended and is running as an independent.

Official results from the Aceh Independent Election Commission are expected next week.

In the second only governor’s election in Aceh, a semi-autonomous region on Indonesia’s northwestern tip that has used Islamic law since insurgents fighting Jakarta’s rule signed a peace deal in 2005, both sides complained of voter intimidation.

Yusuf said several campaign vehicles belonging to his team were burned by unidentified attackers.

“There is hindrance in the field, intimidation. People were scared. There were murders, kidnappings, knocking on people’s doors to tell them to not vote for a certain candidate and that if they don’t pick a certain candidate there will be a war,” he told reporters on Monday.

At least thirteen people died in the run-up to the election in Sumatra island’s poorest province, Jakarta-based risk firm Concord Consulting said in a report.

“The elections, which were delayed three times since last year, have been plagued with alleged politically motivated violence, including at least 13 murders,” the report said.

Aceh shows that a guerilla conflict can be resolved by allowing rebels to take part in the political process, said security analyst Sidney Jones of the Brussels-based International Crisis Group.

One challenge for Abdullah and Partai Aceh if they win is to reconcile with supporters of other parties, she said.

“The most important issue is to show that everybody will be treated equally whether or not they were past combatants or past supporters of the Partai Aceh movement … and that there will be serious attention to the economic and social problems of Aceh,” she said.

Rebels laid down their arms after the December 26, 2004, tsunami that left 170,000 dead or missing. In all, the tsunami killed about 230,000 people in 13 Indian Ocean nations.

Aceh benefited from billions of dollars of aid after the disaster and has recovered gradually, but many there are demanding more stability.

The region was plagued by the separatist conflict for three decades, including periods of military rule. Human rights abuses were rife and thousands of civilians died.

Former rebels now dominate politics and violence during the campaign was linked to the aftermath of the insurgency. The main fault lines are between Partai Aceh, formed by GAM and which controls Aceh’s parliament, and Yusuf who won elections in 2006.

“What Acehnese want is peace. It’s a definite prize because Aceh has suffered from 30 years of conflict,” said Irfandi Djailani of Forum LSM Aceh, a consortium of non-governmental groups.

(Additional reporting and writing by Olivia Rondonuwu; Editing by Louise Ireland and Matthew Bigg)

(The Baiturrahman Grand Mosque at sunset in Banda Aceh April 15, 2005/Tarmizy Harva)

Islamic religious police in Indonesia’s Aceh province are stumped about how to handle a case of two women who married at the urging of neighbors concerned that one of the roomates was a man and therefore a couple living in sin.  Aceh is the only province in the country that applies sharia, or Islamic law.

The women, Nuraini and Rohani, came under pressure as neighbors assumed Rohani was a man because of her appearance and male nickname, Ranto. But after the marriage, suspicions grew that Rohani was actually a woman and local residents turned them in to the police on Sunday.

“In the Prophet’s book, people committing such a thing should be beheaded or thrown into the sea, but we don’t have that in our regulations,” Muddasir, the head of Aceh’s religious police, told Reuters on Wednesday. The religious police are responsible for monitoring behavior in the province, often clamping down on skimpy clothing or unmarried couples. Sharia inspired bylaws contain regulations on promiscuity, and adultery can be punished by stoning to death.

Muddasir said his office had leafed through books of bylaws but failed to find any article regulating same-sex marriages. He said the couple have been detained, with police and religious figures considering ways to separate them forever.

Tengku Faisal Ali, who heads an association of Islamic Boarding School Scholars in Aceh, said the case showed a shifting of values in Aceh society. This mirrors a wider conflict in the world’s most populous Muslim nation between those pushing for an Islamic state and a mostly moderate and youthful population in the archipelago.

via Women’s marriage baffles Islamic police in Indonesia’s Aceh | Reuters.

.

Follow FaithWorld on Twitter at RTRFaithWorld

Subscribe to all posts via RSS

A businessman descended from the Acehnese royal family, di Tiro declared independence for the westernmost province of Aceh in 1976.

As many as 15,000 people died in the ensuing conflict between the rebels and Indonesia’s military, and human rights organisations documented numerous instances of abuses.

It took a massive earthquake and tsunami on December 26, 2004, which devastated Aceh and killed an estimated 170,000 in the province, to resolve the conflict.

A peace deal between the Free Aceh Movement, known as GAM, and the government was eventually reached in August 2005. Di Tiro, who had lived in self-imposed exile in Sweden, returned home in 2009, frail and elderly.

He died of a lung infection in a hospital in Banda Aceh, just one day after the chief political and security minister visited him to reinstate him as an Indonesian citizen.

The Helsinki peace accord paved the way for limited self-rule in the resource-rich province, which is the only one in officially secular but predominantly Muslim Indonesia to have implemented Sharia law.

After the peace deal, GAM members launched new political parties, including the Aceh Party which now runs the provincial parliament, while a former rebel commander was elected provincial governor. Di Tiro was made the guardian of Aceh.

“He had always wanted a prosperous Aceh and I believe most of his dreams have come true. He witnessed a peaceful and prosperous Aceh of today,” said Aceh Governor Irwandi Yusuf in a telephone text message to Reuters.

(Additional reporting by Olivia Rondonuwu in JAKARTA; Editing by Sara Webb)

A sharia police officer escorts women caught wearing tight pants during a street raid in Aceh province on May 26, 2010/Junaidi Hanafiah

In a bid to implement Islamic law to the letter, Indonesia’s West Aceh district on Thursday started giving away long, loose skirts to cover up Acehnese women caught wearing tight jeans. The westernmost province of Aceh on Sumatra is the sole upholder of sharia law in the predominantly Muslim, but secular Indonesia. The previous local parliament passed a controversial law in September allowing adulterers to be stoned to death.

Wilayatul Hisbah, the Aceh sharia police who began this year conducting raids on unmarried couples caught together as well as gamblers and drinkers, on Thursday set up road blocks to search cars and buses for women wearing tight trousers.

Sharia police give advice to women caught wearing tight pants in Aceh province on May 26, 2010/Junaidi Hanafiah

Offenders were taken away to a security post and their details recorded. They were briefed on sharia law and instructed to put on one of the 20,000 long skirts the local government ordered from tailors in Jakarta. Offenders were also asked to sign an agreement not to repeat the offence.

Imah, 40, a housewife, was enraged when the sharia police stopped her while she was riding a motorbike and asked her to change into a skirt. “Are jeans forbidden by religion?” she asked.

Read the full story here.

Follow FaithWorld on Twitter at RTRFaithWorld

Police carried out the raids around Banda Aceh, the capital of Aceh, following the arrest on Sunday morning of six terror suspects in Medan, North Sumatra.

Scores of suspected militants have been arrested in recent weeks, most of whom had trained at a camp in Aceh. Some of those arrested or killed in raids in recent weeks had been involved in bomb attacks in Indonesia.

Security experts have warned that Indonesia’s militant network has strengthened, as individuals from the splinter groups of Jemaah Islamiah and other radical organizations have formed an alliance.

Police said on Monday they shot a man involved in the beheading of three Christian schoolgirls in 2005 in the Poso region of Central Sulawesi province. More than 2,000 people died there in clashes between Christians and Muslims from 1998 to 2001.

“We have shot dead a wanted terrorist … He was involved in the mutilation of three schoolgirls in Poso in 2005,” said Aceh police chief of detectives, Esa Permana, in a text message.

The man, Enal Tao alias Zaenal alias Ridwan, 38, had arranged for militants to travel to the Philippines for training in a militant camp, Permana said.

Separately, a national police spokesman in Jakarta said one of the six men captured in Medan had been trained at a militant camp in the southern Philippines, while two others had been involved in the bomb attack on the Australian embassy in Jakarta in 2005.

(Additional reporting by Telly Nathalia; Writing by Olivia Rondonuwu; Editing by Sara Webb and Jerry Norton)

Aceh is the only province in predominantly Muslim Indonesia to use Islamic sharia for its legal code. The previous provincial government passed a controversial law in September allowing adulterers to be stoned to death.

Now Ramli Mansyur, regent of a district in West Aceh, said on Tuesday he plans to introduce a regulation forcing women to wear Muslim dress, which could come into effect in December.

“Trousers are allowed, as long as the woman also wears a long skirt down to her ankles,” he said. “The fashion has become too open, and it embarrasses me.”

Mansyur said women who will flout the law will not be served at government offices and their trousers could be destroyed. He has ordered 7,000 skirts to be set aside for women who cannot afford to buy such attire.

“If a woman wears pants and tucks her top in, that’s wrong. Even if she is wearing a headscarf, her dress can still show her body shape, and that is not perfect Muslim dress,” the head of sharia department in West Aceh, Nur Djuned, also said.

Aceh, on the far western tip of the Indonesian archipelago, is sometimes referred to as the “verandah of Mecca” because the staunchly Muslim province was one of the first parts of the country to turn to Islam.

(Writing by Olivia Rondonuwu in Jakarta; Editing by Sara Webb and Miral Fahmy)

The exercise, a U.N.-backed initiative to test the warning systems and overall preparedness of nations in the region, is supposed to simulate the magnitude 9.15 quake that struck off Aceh on December 26, 2004 and triggered a huge tsunami.

About 230,000 people died as the tsunami raced across the Indian Ocean and hit Indonesia, Thailand, Sri Lanka and India, including 170,000 deaths in Aceh alone.

In Aceh, several hundred took part in the simulation.

“I’m still traumatized from the tsunami,” said Halimah, 43, who watched the drill but did not take part. “If there’s another disaster, I prefer to take shelter in the mosque so that if I die, I’d die in the mosque.”

Officials from Indonesia’s meteorology and geophysics agency in Jakarta issued the test earthquake warning, sending out the notification of a major quake off the coast of Aceh via a telephone text message, followed by a tsunami warning.

People with mock bandages were carried on stretchers, while others pretended to be dead.

Since the 2004 tsunami, early warning systems ranging from beach loudspeaker sirens to deep ocean monitor buoys have been set up at a cost of about $150 million, according to an official.

In the Sri Lankan fishing village of Godawaya in Hambantota, a vehicle blasted a piercing warning siren in the morning calm.

“The warning tower did not work. But the officials rang a siren from a vehicle and got the people together,” fisherman Piyasiri Senaratna said.

“We all gathered at the Buddhist temple and the officials organized groups. This was successful exercise. We learned a lot about the tsunami from these officials.”

In the eastern village of Puthukudiyiruppu South, where 13 people died in the 2004 tsunami, 45-year-old Sanmuaja Palmweu said there was much better awareness now of what to do.

“Before 2004, we knew nothing about tsunamis, but thanks to all the drills and training we know what to do now, and how to pass the information if something is coming,” said Palmweu.

TOP ACEH OFFICIAL PROCLAIMS DRILL A SUCCESS

Some officials appeared confused during the Aceh drill, but the province’s deputy governor declared it a success, while warning against excessive reliance on technology. U.N. officials are to issue an assessment within days.

A series of recent disasters in Asia has raised fresh questions over the state of preparations — including an earthquake on Indonesia’s Sumatra island, and a series of tsunamis in Samoa and American Samoa.

Some experts have questioned the effectiveness of early alert systems, particularly if the time interval between the alarm and the tsunami hitting the area is very short, as would be the case in Indonesia, which lies on the fault lines.

Tsunami waves can travel at speeds of 800-1,000 kph (500-600 mph. The height of normal waves and tsunami waves is similar in deep ocean water, but closer to the shore, tsunami waves slow and swell, reaching heights of 10 meters (32 feet) or more.

Other countries participating included Australia, Bangladesh, India, Kenya, Madagascar, Malaysia, Maldives, Mauritius, Mozambique, Myanmar, Oman, Pakistan, Seychelles, Singapore, Tanzania and East Timor.

(Additional reporting by Olivia Rondonuwu and Dicky Kristanto in Jakarta, and by Andrew Caballero-Reynolds in Batticaloa and Reuters TV in Hambantota; Writing by Ed Davies; Editing by Alex Richardson)