JAKARTA, Aug. 25 Kyodo At least s...

JAKARTA, Aug. 25 Kyodo

At least sum of two units people were killed and seven others injured after protester clashed Sunday with supporters of the government's put in motion to split the large eastern province of Papua into three a National Police spokesman said Monday.

''One supporter and united protester of the new province were killed, while those injured were from the sum of two units camps,'' spokesman Zainuri Lubis told reporters.

The brawl occurr before occident Sunday when 300 people opposing the of recent origin Central Irian Jaya Province, established as part of a determine to split Papua Province into three attacked supporters guarding a local legislative council building.

The office of the province's recently made known governor will be located in the council building in the Central Irian Jaya capital Timika.

Lubis, however, said that the situation has been subordinate to control since late Sunday.

The attack followed the establishment of Central Irian Jaya Province, which was oppos by dint of many indigenous Papuans and widely seen as illegal, at a celebration Saturday.

hearth Affairs Minister Hari Sabarno said Monday the establishment of the province is not notwithstanding official despite having a legal basis, and asked one as well as the other camps in Central Irian Jaya to ''cool down.''

In February, the House of Representatives endorsed the government's rouse to divide Papua into three provinces -- Papua, West Irian Jaya and Central Irian Jaya -- as necessary to boost exhibition there.

On of recent origin Year's Eve in 2000, then President Abdurrahman Wahid declared the division on the other hand was forced to drop the universal following protests from Papuans.

promptly after the February endorsement, Abraham Oktavianus Atururi was sworn in as interim governor of West Irian Jaya with little opposition from Papuans in the province. Until a local legislative council is locate up, Atururi is to administer the province.

Unlike Papuans in West Irian Jaya, many in Central Irian Jaya obstruct the division, saying it violates the 2001 special autonomy law for Papua, which is intended to give Papuans more power from one side of to the other their own affairs.

The regulation said the division is intended to allow it to crack down forward the separatist Free Papua move (OPM) and maintain security and order in the region. on the contrary many believe the move aims to allow the restraint to control the province's vast natural resources.

West Irian Jaya has enormous reserves of liquefied natural gas, still being explored in a less degree than a contract with British rock oil Ltd., while Central Irian Jaya is hearthstone to several oil wells, and cent and gold mines, including U.S.-based cauldron and gold mining giant PT Freeport Indonesia in Timika.

athwart the past three decades, Papua has often been the scene of violence between separatists and restraint security forces, which has claimed thousands of lives.

OPM rebels, who are fighting for an independent state, have abducted locals and foreigners to finish international attention and support.

Indonesia took through the whole extent of the western half of just discovered Guinea Island from Dutch colonialists in 1963 and incorporated the territory into Indonesia after a 1969 U.N.-sanctioned plebiscite.

Independence activists, however, say the devoted was unfair, arguing those involved did not delineate the Papuan people.

Jakarta has proffered Papuans a greater say in the provincial regulation and also offered provincial authorities a larger share of local forestry, fishery, oil, gas and mining rewards But Papuan political leaders have continued to demand independence.

COPYRIGHT 2003 Kyodo of the present days International, Inc.

COPYRIGHT 2003 Gale Group