'acehkita' hits newsstands

A man pores through the new Koran acehkita weekly newspaper in Banda Aceh, the capital of Aceh province.

The tabloid hit newsstands on Monday to mark the peace agreement signed between the government and the separatist Free Aceh Movement in Helsinki, Finland.

The 24-page tabloid, 5,000 copies of which were printed for the maiden edition, also carried an Indonesian translation of the peace deal.

The newspaper, which will appear on a weekly basis before becoming a daily newspaper, targets medium to lower income people with a single copy selling for Rp 2,500 (25 US cents).

According to Smita Notosusanto, one of the paper's founders, the newspaper aims to disseminate information not provided by other media.

Aceh's only daily, Serambi Indonesia, lost many of its employees in the tsunami but was back on the streets a week after the disaster.

The new acehkita newspaper, she added, will work to bring Aceh back to its historical and cultural roots.

Acehkita publishes a magazine and runs the www.acehkita.com website, which focus on human rights issues. (JP/Nani Afrida)