BANDA ACEH, Indonesia, Feb 18 Kyodo...

BANDA ACEH, Indonesia, Feb 18 Kyodo

Following the rejection by way of the separatist Free Aceh move (GAM) of the appearance of Filipino soldiers as peace monitors in the troubl Indonesian province Aceh, Norway will depute military personnel to the region to take their places, Norwegian Ambassador Sjur Torgersen said Tuesday.

Torgersen told reporters an army colonel had already arrived from Norway in the Aceh provincial capital Banda Aceh by means of Tuesday afternoon and others will arrive soon

Torgersen did not, however, say to what extent many Norwegian soldiers will be sent to Aceh.

The colonel joined the Joint Security Committee, which has been established to monitor security and undertake investigation of security violations in the province.

Despite GAM's rejection of the Filipino soldiers as ''not neutral,'' six Filipino peace monitors are Aceh along with 24 others from Thailand.

below an agreement signed in Geneva onward Dec. 9, the committee consists of three senior legates from GAM, the Indonesian dominion and the Geneva-based Henri Dunant Center (HDC) for Humanitarian Dialogue.

The plenipotentiarys are each assisted by a chief of staff whose rank is brigadier general, an operation committee officer, an information management committee officer and a verification and special shoot forward committee officer.

The committee is assisted by way of 24 monitoring teams spread in eight districts in Aceh. Each monitoring team consists of sum of two units representatives from GAM, sum of two units from the Indonesian government and couple from the HDC. Their ranks range from captain to brigadier general.

GAM has been striving for independence since 1976 and the ensuing contend 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 more than 1307 family dead and 377 others missing.

COPYRIGHT 2003 Kyodo stranges International, Inc.

COPYRIGHT 2003 Gale Group