Indonesia: Twenty years after tsunami, Aceh province ruled by Sharia law

It was a few minutes after 8am on December 26, 2004 when the tsunami slammed into the Indonesian city of Banda Aceh. Shortly after the 9.1-magnitude earthquake off the coast of Aceh province, 30-metre-high waves swept away everything in their path. Some 170,000 people were killed in Indonesia and an entire province wiped off the map. The 2004 tsunami remains the worst disaster in the country’s history. But amid the death and destruction, the arrival of humanitarian aid and the colossal efforts being made to rebuild the city have had unexpected effects.

Watch moreBanda Aceh: Reborn after the tsunami

For nearly thirty years, the province of Aceh in the north of the island of Sumatra was in the grip of a civil war between pro-independence rebels and the central government in Jakarta. An international mediation team took advantage of the situation to come to the region’s aid and facilitate peace agreements. In August 2005, after years of fighting in which more than 15,000 people died, the two sides agreed a ceasefire in Helsinki that granted Aceh a large dose of autonomy. It was a victory for resilience: peace became one of the political outcomes of the tsunami.

Alcohol, homosexuality and adultery severely punished

Twenty years later, the province has certainly emancipated itself from the control of Jakarta and the wounds of 2004 have been healed – even if, in some places, the shells of damaged boats are an indelible reminder that the tragedy will never be erased.

Thanks to its high degree of autonomy, Aceh has become what it had always dreamed of: a province under the sway of Sharia law, where homosexuality, adultery and the consumption of alcohol are punished. Although Koranic law was already in force before the tsunami, it is now applied much more strictly, making the territory an exception in Indonesia. 

In this country where 87 percent of the population is Muslim, religion is normally separate from politics.

Nicknamed “the veranda of Mecca” for its geographical location facing Saudi Arabia, Aceh interpreted the 2004 tsunami as “divine punishment”. Residents point to the fact that only Banda Aceh’s mosque was left standing after the deadly wave. All the more reason to apply Koranic law strictly when rebuilding the province.

Watch moreAfter the tsunami, Sharia law in Aceh