Lindsay Murdoch, Jayapura – Pro-independence leaders and militia in West Papua vowed yesterday to defy a government order to pull down the separatist Morning Star flag by tomorrow, setting the stage for more violence in the Indonesian province.

The commander of a 4,000-strong squad of militia based in the provincial capital Jayapura, Mr Alex Baransano, said his men and women were ready to fight. "For sure there will clashes. The people of Papua want to be independent ... they will not allow the flag to be brought down."

Mr Baransano said 22,000 pro-independence militia, called Satgas, were on standby across the province that was formerly called Irian Jaya. Thousands of villagers were trying to converge on Jayapura and other Papuan towns to stop Indonesian police and soldiers bringing down the flag, he said. "We don't want violence, but it is our duty to protect the people."

The independence leader Mr Theys Eluay also predicted violence and said he was ready to die in defence of the flag, which has been flying for months outside his home on Jayapura's outskirts. "The flag is part of us ... part of the Papuan people. That is why we are ready to die."

Pro-independence hardliners are angry that police, acting on orders from the government in Jakarta, say they will enforce tomorrow's deadline for the flag to be brought in the province's main towns.

But other supporters of independence, fearing a bloodbath, want to hold a ceremony to lower the flag. "We can't see a way out of clashes," a church source in Jayapura said. "Nobody seems prepared to talk compromise."

The provincial police chief, Brigadier-General Sylvanus Wenas, directed a tirade of abuse against Papuans during a meeting yesterday with representatives of more than 20 non-government organisations in Jayapura, a source at the meeting said. "Wenas said the Papuans were killers and could not trusted," the source said.

Tensions have risen dramatically across the province since President Abdurrahman Wahid announced a ban on the flag last week, saying it had been used as a symbol of independence. Earlier, Mr Wahid had said the flag could be flown as long as it was alongside and below the Indonesian flag. But a Cabinet meeting early this month chaired by the Vice-President, Ms Megawati Sukarnoputri, ordered Indonesian authorities to crack down on pro-independence groups and to bring down separatist flags.

Facing strong criticisms at home and abroad over many issues, including his Government's inability to stem a tide of separatist sentiment, Mr Wahid last Friday delivered his strongest condemnation of separatist demands, saying the Government was ready to fight them.

Police attempts on October 6 to chainsaw a pole flying the flag in the highlands town of Wamena provoked a rampage by villagers that left more than 40 people dead and scores hurt. The violence caused about 10,000 mainly Indonesian settlers to flee their homes and take refuge in military and police barracks.

Human rights and church representatives in Jayapura yesterday complained to General Wenas about police suggestions that non-indigenous Papuans arm themselves in case of attack. "The police are creating a highly volatile situation," a human rights official said.

The emergence of East Timor-style pro-independence militia in the province early this year alarmed human rights and church groups. They were funded in part by shadowy crime figures in Jakarta with links to the youth wing of Golkar, the party that kept the disgraced former president Soeharto in power for 32 years.

Some observers have speculated that the militia, many of whom flout the law, were encouraged to give Indonesia's security forces an excuse to impose military rule in the province.

Wearing a T-shirt declaring "fight today, victory tomorrow", Mr Eluay said his followers would rally tomorrow to block Indonesian police carrying out orders from Jakarta. "We don't have weapons. We don't have guns," he said. "We only want peace for the Papua nation."