Jakarta – Some 3,000 residents in the remote Indonesian province of Irian Jaya went on the rampage Friday, demanding the recovery of the bodies of some 300 victims of a boat tragedy, police said.

The protestors looted shops and attacked government offices, including the local parliament building, in the town of Merauke after marching through the streets, an officer at the Merauke district police said.

The demonstration became politically charged when the crowd shouted demands for an independent West Papuan state, and rejected Jakarta's plans to divide the region into three provinces, the officer told AFP.

"They have to find a reason to riot, and the boat accident is the one," the policeman told AFP. He said the windows of the parliament building were smashed, but there were no reports of casualties.

Previous protests over the ship tragedy in the past two days had been relatively peaceful, he said, but added that shops and businesses had closed because of the unrest since Wednesday.

Nearly 300 passengers on the boat were believed drowned after a 72-hour search failed to find survivors of the sinking Monday off the coast near the mouth of the Meraukje River.

Only 26 people were rescued. Separatist calls have been on the rise in Irian Jaya since the iron-fisted rule of former Indonesian president Suharto ended in May last year after a series of bloody street protests.

The Free Papua Movement 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 Jakarta's sovereignty over Irian Jaya in 1969.