This is Me...

First of all, let me introduce about myself.

My name is Nurdin Hasan. I am a freelance journalist based in Banda Aceh, the capital of Indonesia's Aceh province.

As you already know that the province hit by Indian Ocean tsunami on December 26, 2004. More than 170,000 people along the coastal areas killed in the biggest natural disaster on modern human history following a 9.3-magnitude undersea earthquake. It was really sad Sunday that being remembered by Acehnese people.

Prior the tragedy, Aceh known as "a closed region" because of armed conflict between the Aceh Free Movement (GAM) guerillas and Indonesian government troops. Despites some truces signed since 2000, however those failed to implement on the ground as both sides accused each other broke the agreement.

Finally, after several rounds of talks under mediated by international respected diplomat (former) Finland President Martti Ahtisari, Jakarta government and GAM leaders signed a historic peace agreement in Helsinki, on August 15, 2005 to end one of the longest civil war in Asia that claimed more than 25,000 people, mostly civilians.

Some analysts said that the peace agreement can be implemented smoothly because of strong pressures by international community so the devastated areas would be rebuilt. After four years under the coordinating of Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Agency called BRR NAD-Nias, Aceh has been rebuilt.

Now the Acehnese people can live in peace, without any fear. They really enjoy the peace situation. People can go out until mid-night, something that could not be found during the conflict era. But many challenges are still faced by the province in order to cope from poverty.

I started my journalism career at Banda Aceh's based Serambi Indonesia daily in 1996 at the foreign desk. At that time, Serambi was the only daily paper in Aceh. I spent nine years at the newsroom. Before I quit from Serambi in 2005, my last position was as the political editor.

Then, I become a freelance journalist. I wrote The Jakarta Globe daily, then Rappler.com for several years. Now I write for acehkita.com and also the France news agency, AFP. I have been as AFP stringer in Aceh since 2000. Besides that I am now the assignment editor for Indonesian version of BenarNews.org.

All the Best,