Foreign helicopter reporter sighted over West Papua

A foreign helicopter has been sighted flying into the Merauke district of Indonesian-ruled West Papua, the Antara news agency reported.

The report quoted sources in the provincial capital of Jayapura as saying that the helicopter was seen flying low early morning and evening between April 6 and 8.

The report has raised intense interest because Indonesian security forces have been battling pro-independence guerrillas in the resource-rich former Dutch colony.

Merauke district head Jhon Gluba Gebse was quoted by Antara as saying that he had already reported the case to the National Intelligence Agency in Jakarta.

Antara said the helicopter was reported to have entered from the border region with Papua New Guinea.

It passed northward into the Indonesian region and flew around for sometime before returning to the PNG border region, Antara quoted the report as saying.

Gebse said similar incidents had happened around May to July last year but at the time it was a small aircraft that had been sighted.

The chief of Indonesia's Jayapura airbase Colonel Bambang Samudro said he had so far not received any report about foreign espionage activity.

West Papua was a Dutch colony, like Indonesia. In the 1960s the Indonesians, who had won their own independence from Dutch colonial rule, began fighting to take control of West Papua from the Dutch.

The province was officially taken over following a controversial 1969 referendum after the Dutch departed following American pressure.

Pro-independence West Papuans call the referendum a sham and say only a small number of men who were intimidated by the Indonesian military were allowed to take part.

Human rights activists accuse Indonesian security forces of human rights abuses in Papua and say thousands of people have died in years of fighting.

Indonesian governments have encouraged the transmigration east of mainly Muslim Asian migrants from the country's crowded main islands to West Papua. West Papuans are mainly Melanesian and Christian.

The current Indonesian Government has recently granted West Papua more autonomy, allowed its name to be changed from Irian Jaya to Papua and given the province a greater share of revenue from its resources.