Jakarta – Some 5,000 people in the remote Indonesian province of Irian Jaya held a peaceful rally Monday to call for an independent Melanesian state, witnesses said.

The protestors, many holding bibles, marched through the town of Timika singing hymns and later headed to the office of the Mimika regent to convey their demands, one witness said by phone.

"Long live the Papua nation" and "Papua is a Melanesian nation," they shouted. "Colonialization must be abolished from the land of Papua," read one of their banners.

"The young generation of Papua wants to be free from intimidation, human rights violations and they want to enjoy their natural resources," a group leader Damaris Onawime said.

Separatist calls have been on the rise in Irian Jaya since the iron-fisted rule of former Indonesian president Suharto ended in May after a series of bloody street protests.

The Free Papua Movement (OPM) has been fighting for an independent Melanesian state, West Papua, since the former Dutch colony of West New Guinea became an Indonesian province in 1963. The United Nations recognized Indonesian sovereignty over Irian Jaya in 1969. Irian Jaya shares a land border with independent Papua New Guinea.

The protestors were later received by Mimika regent Titus Potereyaw and the chief of the local police.

In their petition to the regent, the protestors demanded that Indonesia let go of Irian Jaya by 2000 and allow establishment of "Papua" coordinating posts (bases). They threatened to continue to demonstrate until their demands were fulfilled.

An official at Mimika police station, contacted by AFP, said however that the number of protestors was "only in the hundreds."

Potereyaw said his office would convey the demands to the central government, but added a decision on the establishment of Papua posts should be left up to the Irian Jaya police.

Police have outlawed the presence of the coordinating posts set up by independence supporters in the province.