Banda Aceh – Four people, including a woman, are the latest casualties of decades-long violence between government and separatist rebel forces in Aceh province, residents said on Wednesday.

They told journalists that two men, including an 18-year-old high school student, were found dead in a oil palm plantation in Paya Rambong, East Aceh, on Tuesday.

The bodies had gunshot wounds and traces of torture. Both had been abducted by unidentified gunmen while riding a motorcycle in the area the previous day, the residents said.

Meanwhile, a local humanitarian activist, as quoted by AFP, said that a woman who had been shot in the chest was also found dead on Tuesday in Meunasah Dayah in the district of Bireuen. On the previous day, the activist added, residents found the body of a man in the Paya Kareueng area in the same district.

The deaths came as representatives of the government and the separatist Free Aceh Movement (GAM) were heading to Geneva to attend another round of peace talks.

More than 10,000 people have died since GAM began fighting for an independent state in 1976. At least 1,000 have died in Aceh this year alone.