Jakarta – Thousands of indigenous villagers in the Irian Jaya town of Timika on Thursday protested against Indonesia's plans to carve the remote province into three parts, resident sources said. Police, however, put the number of protesters at about 100.

The protesters, from Kelam Kilama village near Timika and others from the town itself, headed to the town's luxury Sheraton hotel at 3am to air their complaints to visiting MP's, a church source said.

"There were maybe some 3,000 Papuanese who came to demand the return of independence and not the carving up of the province," the source told AFP by phone, referring to island's original name of Papua.

The protesters blocked the main street from the hotel, the planned route of a 13-man team of visiting MPs who had been scheduled to travel to western Irian Jaya's Manokwari town at 7am. They then rallied outside the local regency office.

"The protesters blocked the streets and demanded that they be given a hearing inside the hotel, but were prohibited," the source, who preferred anonymity, said. The MPs left Timika on a privately rented plane after meeting the protesters just outside the hotel.

A duty officer at the local police office, who put the number of protesters at about 100, said they left peacefully at 9am after they meeting Mimika regent Titus Potereyaw. Timika is in the regency of Mimika.

"There were about 100 ethnic villagers protesting, the situation is under control now and they disbanded after they met with the regent," the officer who identified himself only as Lexy said. "The regent spoke with them and they agreed to go on home."

The villagers, wearing in tribal costumes, charged in a written statement that Irianese MP Herman Mote and Deputy Governor John Djopari had failed to represent them.

"West Papuanese strongly reject the carving up of the territory. Independence is a final price," the source quoted the statement as saying. "Stop all forms of intimidation and schemes for West Papua," the release said, using the pro-independence name for Irian Jaya, the Indonesian governed half of the predominantly Christian Melanesian island of Papua, which borders independent Papua-New Guinea.

A priest read prayers before and after the protest and sang hymns with the demonstrators, while some held bibles, the source said. About 5,000 people held a similar protest for independence in Timika on Monday.