Robert Go, Jakarta – The government, citing an improved security situation, has downgraded Aceh's martial law status to a civil emergency and will return the conflict-torn province to civilian rule by next Monday, senior officials said yesterday.

Thousands of soldiers, however, will stay in the province of around four million at the northern tip of Sumatra to continue the fight against the remaining separatist rebels in the Free Aceh Movement (GAM).

Mr Hari Sabarno, Home Affairs Minister and Interim Coordinating Minister for Politics and Security, told reporters after a Cabinet meeting yesterday that GAM's strength had dwindled since Jakarta imposed martial law in Aceh a year ago.

The military's latest figures show that some 2,000 rebels died and another 3,000 were captured or surrendered in the past year.

Mr Hari said: "The President considers it appropriate to lower the status from military emergency to civil emergency. The change will take place next Monday."

The military command will continue to impose its iron hand, however, in several areas where the rebels are still active. "The threat from GAM still exists. We have destroyed around half the rebels' strength and half its weaponry. We can't relent now. The soldiers are still needed there," Mr Hari said.

He added that the people of Aceh "want security under the umbrella provided by Indonesia"s military'.

As long as civil-emergency status lasts, the authorities wield several extraordinary powers, including the ability to impose curfews, order house searches and restrict travel into, out of and within the province.

Government officials described the government's operations in Aceh when it first started last May as an American-style campaign to "win hearts and minds". But its actual progress and the previous history of suppression in the province during the Suharto years have been filled with controversy.

Human-rights groups said most victims of the conflict were civilians trapped between two opposing armed forces. They spoke of high numbers of extra-judicial killings, rape and other atrocities by soldiers.

Mr Munir, head of human-rights monitoring group Imparsial, said: "The government is proud of the fact that it has established control in Aceh. But it ignores that life there is far from normal. People are afraid of the soldiers and of the rebels, and are killed by both sides."

In a press statement on Tuesday, Amnesty International said Indonesia was sacrificing human rights for the sake of security and that the people of Aceh "live in constant fear of killings, torture and arrest".

Other critics of the military alleged that national unity was a secondary goal for the generals fighting for control of Aceh's rich resources.

Armed forces chief General Endriartono Sutarto conceded last week that soldiers committed 511 violations, including disciplinary offences, rape, the unauthorised firing of weapons and theft, during what he termed the 'dirty war' of the last year.

One source told The Straits Times that illegal logging, smuggling and other illicit activities in Aceh had increased in the past year.