Aceh is a special territory of Indonesia, located on the northern tip of the Island of Sumatra. It's different name is Acheh, Atjeh and Achin. The Aceh Province has the highest population of sharia law.
It is trhought to have been in Aceh where Islam was the most wealthy, powerful and cultivated State in the Malacca Straits region. Aceh has a history of political independence and fierce resistance to control by outsiders, including the former Dutch colonists and the indonesian goverment. Aceh has subtantial natural resources, including oil and natural gas. Some estimates put Aceh gas reserves as being the largest in the world. Relative to must of indonesia, it is a religiosly conservative area.
Aceh was the closest point of land to the epicenter of the massive 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake, which triggered a tsunami that devastated much of the western coast of the region, including part of the capital of Banda Aceh. 226.000 Indonesians were killed or went missing in the disaster, and approximately 500.000 were left homeless. With these casualties predominantly from Aceh.
This event helped trigger the peace agreement between the goverment of Indonesian and the Free Aceh Movement (GAM), mediated by former finnish president Martti Antisaari, with the signing of MoU on August 15, 2005. With the assistance of the European Union through the Aceh monitoring mission as of December 2005, the peace was held. It is close to the Andaman and Nicobar Island of Indian and saparated from them by the Andaman sea.
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