As landowners, both Ihsan Gani and Teuku Taufik (these are not their real names) were supposed to receive a compensation payment on 20 June 2007. The compensation was due to the acquisition of their respective land parcels by the government. The money would have been transferred to their respective bank accounts. However, the payment was withheld. Some village leaders, who live nearby the expropriated lands, had made a claim that both individuals were not the valid landowners. The village leaders submitted their claim to the Civil Court of Jantho district. Given this lawsuit, the payment to Gani and Taufik was not fulfilled, pending the court decision. Thus, a court dispute over land ownership started between Gani and Taufik on the one side, and the villagers on the other.

According to Fitzpatrick (2008), land acquisition has been a main cause of land disputes, especially when it comes to who are the legitimate recipients of the compensation. Disputes in Aceh over the payment of compensation involve allegations that certain landholders are not eligible parties to the compensation, or that payments have been delayed by disputes or are not forthcoming at all.

The 2004 disaster in Aceh not only led to a massive loss of human lives, but also resulted in the devastation of huge parcels of land in the coastal areas. Boundary lines and land parcel markers were largely obscured. Because of this, certain surviving individuals, neighbours and communities sought to establish a claim to land or to reclaim it. In a few cases, they even blatantly grabbed land parcels whose original owner or heirs were no longer known. This, in turn, ushered in a number of disputes concerning issues such as land boundaries between neighbourhoods, land reallocation and exchanges, inheritance rights to a land parcel and compensation payments. The situation became worse as the National Land Agency (BPN) office in Banda Aceh, which keeps land records, was substantially destroyed. In tsunami-affected areas many personal identity documents were badly damaged or lost (Fitzpatrick 2005). For this reason, restoring and confirming land rights has never been an easy task in post-tsunami Aceh.