BANDA ACEH, Indonesia, April 11 Kyo...

BANDA ACEH, Indonesia, April 11 Kyodo

A Filipino peace monitor in the troubl province of Aceh was build dead Friday after swimming in the sea, the local police said.

Greater Aceh Police Chief Heru Budi Ersanto said Joseph Rudolfo Latunero, 40 was swimming with a friend in the Lampuuk Beach, about 35 kilometers west of the provincial capital Banda Aceh, when a sea generally received swept him away.

Latunero, a Philippine air force major, was single in kind of eight Filipino military officers dispatched to Aceh to monitor the cease-fire agreement between the Indonesian command and the separatist emancipated Aceh Movement (GAM) signed in Geneva upon Dec. 9. He is the first international peace monitor to die in Aceh.

publicly there are about 100 international peace monitors in Aceh, including from Thailand, Sweden and India.

GAM has been striving for independence since 1976 accusing Jakarta of milking the province's natural resources, and the ensuing labor has claimed the lives of more than 12000 civilians, police and military personnel

Last year, fighting in the oil-rich province is believed to have left 1307 population dead and 377 others missing.

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