Outrage as Aceh votes in "stoning" law

       Rights activists yesterday condemned as "cruel and degrading" a new Islamic law calling for adulterers to be stoned to death in the country's staunchly conservative Aceh province.
       The law, which also allows punishments of up to 400 lashes for child rape,100 lashes for homosexual acts and 60 lashes for gambling, was passed unanimously on Monday by lawmakers in the region at the northern tip of Sumatra Island.
       The law replaces parts of Indonesia's criminal code with sharia, or Islamic law, for Muslims. It allows the death penalty for married people and 100 lashes for unmarried people found guilty in cases of adultery.
       "The laws that have been approved in Aceh are cruel and degrading to humanity," National Commission on Human Rights head Ifdhal Kasim said.
       The law undermines the secular basis of Indonesia's law, Mr Kasim said, adding the rights group was appealing to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to review the legislation.
       "This will take Aceh back to the past. Throwing stones is like Aceh in the 14th or 15th centuries," Mr Kasim said, adding the law would likely embolden conservatives pushing for sharia on a national level.
       The controversial legal change was passed in Aceh just weeks before a new, more moderate provincial assembly, dominated by the Aceh Party of ex-separatist fighters of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM), is due to take power.
       The administration of Aceh Governor Irwandi Yusuf, himself a former GAM fighter, is opposed to the strict sharia law, but has said it is powerless to stop the law, which will come into effect in 30 days with or without his signature.
       "[The law] only deals with petty crimes, adulterers, but it doesn't deal with [significant crimes such as] corrupt officials," Human Rights Watch spokesman Andreas Harsono said.
       "In our opinion it is against the principle of human rights," he said.
       Human Rights Working Group head Rafendi Djamin said the punishments set out in the law were "humiliating and degrading" and a product of politicking among local leaders.
       "They're more interested in private issues than issues of the wider public interest like corruption and measures to empower people who have been suffering in the wake of conflict," Mr Djamin said.
       Arif Budimanta, a senior official of the opposition Democratic Party of Struggle of former president Megawati Sukarnoputri, condemned the law despite its local members having supported it in the Aceh assembly."We are deeply concerned about this cruel law as it is against our national ideology and values of pluralism," he said.
       Ma'ruf Amin, head of the Indonesian Council of Ulema, Indonesia's top Islamic body, welcomed the new law.
       "The Council supports sharia law in areas where it is allowed, like Aceh,which has special autonomy. It's not a matter of good or bad.
       "For Muslims, sharia law is the best and can be implemented anytime, anywhere. As long as there is agreement from everyone, there's no problem,"Mr Amin said.
       Aceh had previously adopted a milder form of sharia law in 2001 as part of an autonomy package from Jakarta aimed at quelling local separatist sentiment. The sharia code enforced religious observation and offered lighter punishments, including caning, for gambling, drinking and association between unmarried members of the opposite sex.
       Nearly 90% of Indonesia's 234 million people are Muslim, but it also has significant Hindu, Buddhist, Christian and Confucian minorities.