Fourteen non-governmental organisations in Aceh have issued a joint statement in response to the decision announced two weeks ago by the armed forces commander, General Wiranto, to end Aceh's status as a military operational region, to withdraw non-organic troops from the region, and to make an apology for the past actions of Indonesian troops in the region.

While welcoming the steps taken by Wiranto as a mark of ABRI accepting responsibility for the brutal behaviour by its troops towards the innocent people of Aceh, including abductions, torture, rape, the burning of people's homes and seizure of people's property, the NGOs made the following demands:

That the ABRI leadership take full responsibility under law for the inhumane treatment of the people of Aceh, and make public the names of persons who were involved;

That the ABRI leadership rehabilitate the good name and reputation of the people of Aceh by ending the 'GPK' stigma attached until now and paying compensation for the material losses they have suffered;

That the withdrawal of non-organic troops should be open and transparent, specifying the number of troops from each unit withdrawn;

With regard to the apology or request for forgiveness, it is not enough just to ask for forgiveness as this should also include concrete actions to contribute towards the living costs of the families of the victims who have suffered at the hands of officers who acted beyond the pale;

We totally reject his decision to replace the "GPK" label with the "GPL" label which simply represents a new kind of stigma that could be used to legitimise activities favouring the interests of certain groups or individuals;

The statement made by the Minister-Coordinator for Political and Security Affairs (General Feisal Tanjung) to the effect that the Aceh case is an internal matter unrelated to international concern for human rights violations reflects an erroneous attitude of a top government official, ignoring the fact that Indonesia is part of the international community, meaning that all actions should respect the standards agreed upon by the international community, not least the human rights abuses in Aceh.