The International Crisis Group (ICG), 31 July 2006
Islamic Law and Criminal Justice in Aceh
Asia Report N°117
31 July 2006
Executive summary
Aceh is the only part of Indonesia that has the legal right to apply Islamic law (Shari'a)
in full. Since 1999, it has begun slowly to put in place an institutional framework for
Shari'a enforcement. In the process, it is addressing hard questions: What aspects
should be enforced first? Should existing police, prosecutors and courts be used or
new entities created? How should violations be punished? Its efforts to find the
answers are being watched closely by other local governments, some of which have
enacted regulations inspired by or derived from Shari'a. These moves in turn are
sparking a raging debate in Indonesia about what role government at any level should
play in encouraging adherence to Islamic law and how far the Islamisation drive will or
should be allowed to spread.
This report analyses the reasons usually put forward for why Aceh has been granted
the right to apply Shari'a when many other regions have not: that Islam is central to
Acehnese identity; that there is a historical precedent there; and that granting Shari'a
would help woo an area wracked by insurgency away from separatism and restore
trust in the central government. All three assumptions, but particularly the last, came
into play when the first post-Soeharto government in 1998 began thinking about a
political solution to the Aceh conflict.
Islamic courts in Aceh had long handled cases of marriage, divorce and inheritance.
The breakthrough in terms of greater application came after special autonomy
legislation was passed in 2001, which gave the courts a green light to extend their
reach into criminal justice. It was at this point that serious issues of legal dualism
emerged, with no clear line between what the division of labour would be between the
regular state courts and Shari'a courts. The question of law enforcement was even
murkier: this report looks at the role of the wilayatul hisbah, the "vice and virtue patrol"
that Aceh has set up and how its role is gradually expanding much to the
unhappiness of the police.
Crisis Group examines the practical problems that have emerged as Aceh tries to
enforce the first three Shari'a regulations passed by the district government:
criminalising consumption and sale of alcoholic beverages; gambling; and illicit
relations between men and women. It looks at how and why the government instituted
caning as a punishment for all three, even though there was no precedent for it in
Aceh, and the plans for expanding the application of Islamic law.
The report concludes that while the Shari'a officials in Aceh deeply believe that strict
enforcement will facilitate broader goals like peace, reconstruction and reconciliation,
there are other dynamics at work. The focus on morality seems to have become an
end in itself. The religious bureaucracy has a vested interest in its own expansion.
The zeal shown by the vice and virtue patrol in enforcing the regulations has
encouraged a report-on-your-neighbour process and a kind of moral vigilantism.
Women and the poor have become the primary targets of enforcement. There is no
indication that implementation of Shari'a is advancing justice for most Acehnese. But
for many of its advocates, that may be beside the point. The real issue is whether
man's law or God's will prevails.
Jakarta/Brussels, 31 July 2006
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