Word: irwandi
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...signed a historic peace deal with the Indonesian government in 2005, in the wake of the devastating Indian Ocean tsunami, which claimed about 160,000 lives in Aceh alone. Today, Aceh's governor is a tsunami survivor and former GAM rebel called Irwandi Yusuf, whose background seems tailor-made for REDD: he was trained as a veterinarian and once worked for FFI. "He's one of the few Indonesian politicians who gets it," says Linkie. "He's thinking way beyond his five-year electoral term." In June 2007 Irwandi banned commercial logging in his province, "an unprecedented environmental...
...provinces are [saying], 'Must have a REDD project' rather than 'Let's log it all and convert it into oil palm.'" In partnership with the Australian investment bank Macquarie Group, FFI has six other REDD schemes: three in Indonesia and others in Cambodia, Ecuador and Liberia. Last month, governors Irwandi and Schwarzenegger joined 30 other subnational leaders - including a dozen other U.S. governors and the leaders of forest-rich Brazilian states Amazonas and Mato Grosso - at a climate summit in Los Angeles, where they called upon governments to include REDD within the global framework for combating climate change...
...Nevertheless, some Acehnese have rallied against the harsh bylaws voted in on Monday, saying that if nothing else, they violate Indonesia's constitution and several international human-rights frameworks to which the country has acceded. Indeed, Aceh's governor, Irwandi Yusuf, a former insurgency leader, has in the past expressed discomfort with the wave of Islamic laws being passed in the province. But in a region that is so firmly committed to conservative Islam, outspoken criticism of Shari'a-based criminal law is politically risky. To wit: even though several moderate legislators in the Aceh parliament declined to endorse...
...Irwandi must perform another balancing act with the ulemas, or Islamic religious leaders. Aceh is famously devout, and since 2003 has implemented shari'a-style by-laws against drinking, gambling, premarital sex and improper dress. These are now being enforced by shari'a officials, who have publicly whipped men and women for adultery. Aceh's ulemas are pushing for even stricter punishments, such as amputating the hands of thieves. Irwandi publicly opposes such ideas, which he knows offend the Western donor countries upon which his province's frail economy partly depends. But the clout of Aceh's ulemas cannot...
...Last week I called Irwandi again and asked him about the bad old days. Back in May 2003, I had been reporting on a massacre of villagers, including several boys, by Indonesian troops, and I knew that Irwandi, like thousands of other Acehnese, had been tortured by the security forces. But the governor wanted to look ahead. "I have shaken hands with my torturers," he said. "Of course, I won't forget. You can never forget." And my role in his arrest? Any hard feelings? "No," he laughed. "It was part of my life then. Those were the risks...